Stevens: Neal's Lobos Fall 56-42 to SDSU Aztecs
New Mexico Lobos Men’s Basketball – On The Mountain West Road
San Diego State 56, New Mexico 42
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
A good effort might bring bad results in Viejas Arena. The San Diego State Aztecs defend their turf like a junkyard dog straddling the last soup bone.
But if you don’t shoot particularly well when the Aztecs give you a few cracks – well, that becomes a loss similar to the 56-42 Mountain West fall the Lobos experienced Tuesday night in Viejas.
“We were able to break their press in the second half and had decent looks,” said Lobo Coach Craig Neal, who saw his Lobos fall to 10-5 overall and 2-1 in the MW race. “But we had guys who couldn’t make plays and couldn’t make shots.”
Really, it’s not that easy to make plays or shots against the Aztecs in Viejas. The Aztecs are the fourth best team in the nation when it comes to allowing points to the enemy. They are quick, long, tall and relentless and Neal’s young Lobos ran face to face into an in-your-face wave of Aztecs.
The Lobos shot 30 percent from the floor.
“I don’t’ know if it was the environment. I don’t know if they were nervous,” said Neal. “We have guys who haven’t been in the fire at this level and that’s part of it. This isn’t an easy place to play. We have only won here one time in eight years and we have to figure it out.
“I played some guys I thought were ready for this and it turned out they weren’t ready. But there are going to be a lot of people who lose here.”
And there aren’t too many people who win in Viejas. The Aztecs rode a 23-game home win streak at the Lobos and extended it to 24 games. SDSU is 12-4 and tied with UNM with a 2-1 MW mark.
The Aztecs didn’t exactly shoot lights out against the Lobos: 39 percent overall and 17 percent from 3-point range. However, the Aztecs continued to come up with big plays – and scoring runs – when they needed to put space on the scoreboard between them and Lobos.
There were a lot of little things that favored the Aztecs: offensive boards off missed free throws, forced turnovers on their press, an open Shrigley banging in two of the three long bombs the Aztecs hit on the night.
“I thought we turned the ball over too much in the second half,” said Neal. “I knew it was going to be one of those things where we were bringing in five new guys. I thought we gave good effort. We played hard but it was hard effort without good results.
“Our defense wasn’t that bad, but we have to score the ball. We have been saying that since day one.”
The Lobos had no players in double figures with Obij Aget leading the scoring for UNM with seven points. Hugh Greenwood was held to five points and Deshawn Delaney had four points. The Aztecs won the board battle 37 to 31.
The Aztecs swarm everyone on defense, but they obviously paid a lot of attention to Greenwood.
“They cut the head off our snake. They took Greenwood out of the game,” said Neal. “They just overplay you. They get on top of you.”
Neal said he went over in practice the Aztecs’ pressure. However, it’s a different thing when that pressure comes from the Aztecs inside Viejas Arena.
The Aztecs threw up 18 3-point shots, but they also pounded the ball inside – and pounded the offensive glass. SDSU outscored UNM 32-to-18 in the paint. The Aztecs had 10 offensive boards to five for the Lobos. SDSU had 12 second-chance points to four for the Lobos.
The Lobos had only 11 turnovers, but several key ones led to SDSU scores.
The Lobos fell behind by ten points in the first half (17-7) before cutting that gap to four points (22-18) at the half.
“I told the guys we couldn’t play any worse than we did in the first half and sure enough we did,” said Neal.
The Lobos were down 28-24 off two free throws by Delaney before the Aztecs ran out to a 37-26 lead.
The Lobos cut that hole to 37-30 on a nice penetration by Tim Jacobs and a feed in the paint to Aget, who threw one down. The Aztecs muscled back into a 40-30 lead. The Aztecs were answering each Lobo run and adding a few extra runs.
The Lobos used two free throws by Arthur Edwards to make it 40-34 before the Aztecs again answered. A SDSU trey by Shrigley was followed by a SDSU steal and a layup that turned into a 3-point play on the free-throw line: 46-34. The Aztecs had their biggest lead up to that point: 12 points. That lead went up to 48-35 (13) at the 7:26 break.
The Aztecs kept pulling away. SDSU went up 50-35 (15) and at the final media break at 3:25 the Aztecs were up 54-41. They coasted into the 56-42 Mountain West win.
“We have a big one Saturday at Utah State,” said Neal. “We need to figure some things out. We have to do a better job of getting guys to make plays with the ball. We have to get tougher minded.”
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.