Stevens: Lobos Get Defensive in 54-46 win over ULM
New Mexico Lobos Men’s Basketball – In WisePies Arena/The Pit
Saturday: New Mexico Lobos 54 UL Monroe Warhawks 46
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
It was a little big ugly on the offensive end – “A win is a win,” said Lobo Coach Craig Neal — but the New MexicoLobos made up for offensive ugliness by making it real ugly and hard on the other end – for the ULM Warhawks.
Lobos held ULM to 29.1 percent shooting, 19 first-half points, and pretty much rolled into the 54-46 final.
“We haven’t shot the ball very well,” said Coach Neal, who said his Lobos worked on their zone attack all week but “it looked like we didn’t work on any zone offense. I think our Achilles Heel is anybody who plays a zone.”
Said Hugh Greenwood: “We’ve been working on it (zone offense) a ton.”
The Lobos shot 33.9 percent Saturday night in WisePies Arena, which is not good, but when you hold the other guy to 29 percent shooting and outboard them 45-to-35 – well, you win games. The Warhawks did not have a player reach double figures.
“I thought we played better defensively (than offensively),” said Neal. “I’m going to chalk it (offense) up to finals. The guys were a little drained. I’m going to give them a pass as a coach.”
“That’s what we have to hang our hats on,” Greenwood said of UNM’s defensive effort. “We’re going to make shots. That will come.”
There was only one player on the night to reach double figures in scoring: UNM’s Deshawn Delaney with 15 points. He added eight boards and went 6-of-15 from the floor. Devon Williams and Greenwood combined to go 2-of-18 from the field. Tim Jacobs came off the bench to score eight points and pull down five boards.
“It’s kind of a confidence thing,” Delaney said of shooting. “You are going to make shots and you are going to miss shots. You can’t let it bother you. You have to keep shooting.”
Said Greenwood: “We’ll make shots. It’s not a concern.”
The Warhawks made the game interesting for a couple of minutes by cutting a 17-point (48-31) Lobos’ lead at 8:12 into a 48-42 lead at 3:48. It was an 11-0 ULM run.
But when The Pit crowd got excited, the Lobos raised their defensive intensity and that pretty much ended it for the visitors from Louisiana. The Lobos also got a huge bucket from Jacobs with 2:26 to play to push UNM into a 52-44 lead.
It was a good test for us,” said Neal. “You would think we would be in a better flow at home offensively. We have done a really good job doing what we want to do defensively.
“The thing that concerns me is our shooting. And you can’t have 12 turnovers with only seven assists. But if we can continue to rebound like that and get 20 offensive rebounds, we are going to be a tough team to beat.”
The Warhawks jumped into a 9-4 lead at the 15:32 mark of the first half. The Lobos had a small, but important surge at the end of the first half to take a 26-19 lead into the break. UNM was up only 20-19 with 6:03 to play in the first half.
“We can’t start games at home the way we have been starting them,” said Neal. “We have to get off to better starts at home.”
The Lobos’ nasty defense continued into the second half. At the 11:36 media break, the Warhawks had added only eight points to their first-half total of 19. UNM was up 39-27. There was a lot of game clock remaining, but ULM was having a lot of trouble scoring against that UNM defensive front.
At that 11:36 break, ULM was shooting 27.3 percent from the floor in the half and UNM was hitting at a 50 percent clip. ULM was 2-of-14 from 3-point range and needed that to change in order to creep back into contention.
A driving layup at 9:30 by Joe Furstinger pushed UNM into a 44-31 lead and the Warhawks asked for a timeout. The Lobo freshman got a put-back underneath to make it 48-31 in UNM’s favor and ULM asked for another timeout with 8:09 to play – down 17 in The Pit. UNM was now shooting 58.8 percent in the second half.
The game was pretty much over unless ULM found a miracle finish – and a whole lot of baskets. They almost did
ULM cut that gap to 48-42 and 50-44. The Lobos needed a big bucket. They got one on a driving layup by Jacobs that gave UNM a 52-44 lead with 2:26 to go. UNM then got a stop and Delaney followed a Jacob’s miss: 54-44 with 1:10 to play.
That pretty much ended it. UNM cruised to the 54-46 final and bumped its record to 6-3.
The Lobos have three non-conference games remaining before the Mountain West season starts at home (Dec. 31) vs. Fresno State.
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.