Stevens: Cold-Shooting Lobos Fall 66-54 to Trojans
New Mexico Lobos Men’s Basketball in The Pit
Sunday: USC Trojans 66, New Mexico Lobos 54
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
Lobo Coach Craig Neal said if he had known before the game the stat lines that Devon Williams and Obij Aget were going to throw out, he “would have thought we would win by double figures.”
And the stat lines were pretty ones. Williams had 15 points and 10 boards. Aget had 11 points and 10 boards. Heck, Deshawn Delaney had 13 points, six rebounds and three assists. Neal got solid scoring from his “bigs” and from the wing.
But it was the USC Trojans who walked out of The Pit Sunday afternoon with the double-digit win – 66-54.
“That was a tough one,” said Neal. “That wasn’t very good. I thought we had a chance to win the game at 47-47 (with 7:39 to play). Give them credit. They made the plays and we didn’t make plays.”
The Trojans also made a few more shots. UNM shot 20 percent from the floor in the second half which pulled them down to 32.7 percent shooting for the game. The Lobos were 5-of-25 in the final 20 minutes. USC shot 34.5 percent in the second half – not good, but good enough. They also went 16-of-23 from the free-throw line.
The stat line you can’t ignore is the one behind Hugh Greenwood’s name. If Neal had seen that line coming, he might have seen a loss on the way. Greenwood was 0-of-11 from the field, 0-of-0 from the free-throw line and had a single rebound.
“You don’t think you are going to shoot 12 percent from the 3-point line,” said Neal of UNM going 3-of-24.
The long shots in the second half were really off: 1-of-14 for 7.1 percent. The Lobos threw up a lot of long balls at the end trying to rally, but a lot of them were on-balance, good looks.
“It was one of those games where you couldn’t get over the hump,” said Neal. “It’s a major bump in the road.”
The Trojans came out for the second half nursing a 34-32 lead. They continued to control the scoreboard during the first 10 minutes of the second half – but not by much. USC was up 45-40 going into a media break at the 11:54 mark. UNM was 2-of-8 from the floor at that point and the Trojans were 4-of-12. At the 6:57 break, the Lobos were down 49-47 after USC pulled out of a 47-all tie.
Greenwood was 0-of-8 from the floor at that point with no points and one rebound – and the Lobos were still hanging around. “You are going to have those games,” Neal said of Greenwood. “But he has to get to the line.”
USC then pulled away into a 55-48 lead with 3:34 to play. The Trojans weren’t exactly hot, but were getting some short shots inside to drop. UNM had missed four straight since the 6:57 break.
USC added a free toss to go up 56-48 and Greenwood missed a trey. UNM got a stop that led to a single free throw by Delaney. It was 56-49 and Neal called time with 2:25 to go. UNM needed to pressure and get some steals.
The press forced a USC turnover on a traveling call. Greenwood missed a baseline trey on a nice pass by Tim Jacobs. UNM put USC at the line for a one-and-one: 58-49, and again: 60-49. The scoreboard had gotten away from the Lobos. The Trojans rolled in for the 66-54 final.
“I think they played as hard as they can play, but they have to learn how to play at this level,” Neal said of his younger Lobos. “We didn’t get off to a good start.”
The Lobos survived a 10-point deficit in the first half and had that 47-all tie with 7:39 to go. But there were a few defensive lapses – and too many missed shot.
“Our guys are upset,” said Neal. “I think we really had good looks. We just didn’t make shots. That’s part of the game. Sometimes you make them and sometimes you don’t. We have to figure out how to make them.
“But there are no excuses. I’m not going to make excuses. I just have to get my team to play better.”
The Lobos played the game with three key players on the injured list: Cullen Neal, Arthur Edwards and Jordan Goodman.
USC had four players in double figures, two players with eight points and one player with seven points. After UNM’s trio of double-digit scorers, UNM had no player with more than four points. Walk-on Tim Jacobs played 19 minutes with two assists and one turnover. USC also won the board battle 44-38.
“He did good,” Neal said of Jacobs. “He did exactly what I wanted him to do. He plays hard and he’s not going to get you in trouble. He guards and tries to do the right thing.”
The Lobos’ next game is 7 p.m., (ESPN3) Wednesday in The Pit vs. New Mexico State. “There are a lot of little things we have to fix,” said Devon Williams. “Once we fix those, we’ll be a pretty good team.”
First Half: USC Trojans 34, New Mexico Lobos 32
The Lobos battled in a hole most of the first half, down by as many as 10 points. The Lobos made a charge at the end to form their two-point gap at the break. Devon Williams had 10 points for UNM and added six rebounds. USC got eight points from Elijah Stewart. Both teams made 13 field goals, but USC had one more 3-pointer and one more free throw to grab the 34-32 lead.
Editor’s Note: Richard Stevens is a former national award-winning Sports Columnist and Associate Sports Editor at The Albuquerque Tribune. You can reach him at rstevens50@comcast.net.