Stevens: Lobos Win 69-67 To Sweep NMSU Aggies
New Mexico Lobos Men’s Basketball – On The Road
New Mexico Lobos 69, New Mexico State 67
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
Sweet Sweep!
It wasn’t always pretty and sometimes it was downright ugly, but anytime the New Mexico Lobos can leave Las Cruces with a season sweep of the New Mexico State Aggies tucked into the team bus, well, there isn’t much to complain about.
“I thought it was amazing that half the place was full of Lobo people,” said Lobo Craig Neal.
The Lobos got 12 points from Obij Aget and 17 more from Deshawn Delaney and posted a 69-67 non-conference win over the NMSU Aggies Saturday in the Pan American Center. The Aggies got a long trey at the buzzer to make the score a bit more dramatic than it really was.
New Mexico also got eight points apiece from Tim Jacobs and Devon Williams and nine points from Jordan Goodman. Hugh Greenwood and Aget each pulled down seven boards and Delaney added seven rebounds.
The Lobos shot a hot 52.8 percent from the field and NMSU also shot well at 48.1 percent. The Lobos won the board battle 32-to-25. The Aggies had 18 turnovers and UNM had 16 turnovers.
The Aggies were down by as many as 19 points before throwing out a furious rally that cut the final score to a more respectable margin. However, it never really looked like the Aggies were going overtake the Lobos at the end.
“We didn’t finish the way we wanted to,” said Neal. “They made some big shots at the end that they (NMSU) shouldn’t have made. We talked about it in the locker room. But we knew the Aggies were going to fight. We knew they were going to play hard.”
The Aggies got 21 points from Ian Baker, 16 from Pascal Siakam and 15 from Remi Barry.
It was the seventh straight win for the Lobos in the Pan American Center.
“They went zone and we went into, ‘Nobody wanted to make a play; nobody wanted to make a shot,'” said Neal.
The Lobos pushed their 30-20 halftime lead to 56-42 with 8:18 when the Aggies started playing with that sense of desperation that created more Aggie energy, more Pan Am energy and a few Lobo turnovers.
The Aggies cut their hole to 56-48 – eight points – and the Pan American Center got even more energized.
The Lobo had led by as many as 19 points, so NMSU had to be happy pulling to within eight points. An Aggie trey cut UNM’s lead to seven points – 58-51 – with 4:10 to play. The court had become a bit ragged which is what the Aggies like to see.
With 3:05 to play, UNM had a 58-52 lead going into a timeout by NMSU. The Lobos then created a good stretch of basketball: a bucket by Tim Jacobs, a blocked shot by Jacobs and a trey by Delaney: UNM was up 65-54 – 11 points.
The Lobos’ win snapped a 14-game Aggie win streak in the Pan American Center. NMSU was 33-2 at home over the past 35 games before UNM added a loss to that gaudy record.
“The team is doing a good job of being unselfish,” said Neal. “Deshawn is incredible. I thought O (Aget) was terrific.”
FIRST HALF: New Mexico 30, New Mexico State 20
The Lobos went up 6-3 before the Aggies slipped into a 7-6 lead. With 11:26 to play, UNM was back up 12-11.
The Lobos got three straight buckets from Delaney, Aget and Goodman and the 18-11 lead convinced NMSU to call a timeout. The Aggies came out of their huddle and turned the ball over and Jacobs hit a jumper to push UNM into a 20-11 lead. At the 7:20 break, UNM was up 20-14.
UNM got a step-back trey from Goodman to take a 23-14 lead. UNM went up 26-16 on a Delaney dunk off a Greenwood feed. The Lobos kept that 10-point lead heading into the haltime break.