Stevens: Greenwood Paces 60-48 Win over Air Force
New Mexico Lobos Men’s Basketball – In WisePies Arena/The Pit
Wednesday: New Mexico 60, Air Force 48
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
It wasn’t exactly a Pit game. The Air Force Falcons have a way of taking the crowd out of the game with their Princeton system. It can be tedious – for Lobos, for fans.
However, New Mexico’s 60-48 Mountain West win Wednesday night in WisePies Arena was very much a Hugh Greenwood game, even though the Lobos’ senior went only 2-of-10 from the floor.
But he did all that other Greenwood stuff. He hustled. He hit free throws. He had four steals. He led.
He was the thorn in the Falcons’ side that they could never dislodge and eventually the Falcons went quietly into the night with a MW loss. Air Force drops to 8-8 and 1-4 in league play and UNM goes to 12-5 and 4-1 in the Mountain West.
“We have a great leader who made some unbelievable plays,” said Lobo Coach Craig Neal. “I’ve never been around a kid like Hugh Greenwood, who can just win a game by himself.
“He didn’t have a very good offensive night, but the things he does to win games is what Lobo basketball is all about and I hope it rubs off on the other guys.”
Said Sam Longwood, who led all scorers with 17 points: “He is our leader. He does all the little things such as talking, hustle plays and defense. He is such a good leader.”
The Lobos’ 12-point win over Air Force looks easier on paper than it did on the court. The Lobos kept threatening to drift away and the Falcons kept coming back – and quieting The Pit crowd of 13,891, which was doing its thing to help the Lobos.
That’s another thing about Greenwood. He often does his Greenwood stuff in crunch time, for a good reason: Greenwood likes to win.
A pivotal stretch in the second half came when Greenwood made three hustle plays – all steals – and paced the Lobos to a 47-40 lead with 4:45 to play. Three of his four steals led to Lobo points and, really, it was a huge seven-point lead because of the way the Falcons play: Patient, tedious.
You drift far enough ahead on Air Force and the Falcons have to change things. The Falcons do not want to change things.
And UNM was controlling the pace ever more by making the Air Force Princeton work around a shifting zone defense – several shifting zones.
“We threw the kitchen sink at them tonight,” said Neal. “To hold them to 48 points the way they can shoot the ball and we play zone the whole game — that was pretty good.”
Maybe the defining nail in this 60-48 MW win was yet another Greenwood steal that lead to two Greenwood free throws with 46 seconds to play. That handed UNM a fat 55-46 lead. It was pretty much over.
However, there was another monster shot by a Lobo. This one came with 1:45 to play off the fingertips of Logwood. It rippled the nets for three points off the baseline and pulled UNM out of a 49-44 lead and pushed them to 52-44. It also was huge.
“I just went out there and did what coach told me to do,” said Logwood. “I do whatever he says.”
Neal told Logwood before the game to shoot the ball. Logwood did – taking nine shots and making six of them. He also tagged on three assists and went 3-of-4 from the free-throw line. Greenwood scored 11 and Arthur Edwards came off the bench to score 10 points. Deshawn Delaney had eight points, six boards, four assists and two steals.
“It’s a confidence booster,” Logwood said of his 17 points. “But you have to stay humble and try to get better every day.”
Said Coach Neal: “That wasn’t a very good game as far as point totals, but we’re glad we won. They are a tough team to play against.”
The Falcons took a 19-18 lead in the first half, but UNM settled in for a 22-20 halftime lead. The Lobos scored eleven points in the first 4:22 of the game and scored eleven points in the remaining 15:38 of the half.
The Falcons got as close as 42-40 in the second half with 6:10 to play, but less than a minute later, Greenwood hit his, well, Greenwood stretch.
UNM drifted to 49-40 with 4:38 to play on a bucket by J.J. N’Ganga. That was another big basket – a jump hook.
The Lobos shot 50 percent from the field and 55 percent in the second half. Air Force shot 34.8 percent, but only 30.4 percent in the first half. UNM ruled the glass 33-to-22 and had 16 turnovers. Air Force had nine steals and UNM had seven steals.
The Lobos had several players shoot well – and several not so well. Neal said a couple of Lobos looked like “deer in the headlights.”
“We shot 20 threes (6-of-20) and we aren’t going to do very well when we shoot 20 threes,” said the Lobo coach. “But any game you win is good. I thought we got good play from everyone, but we had problems scoring until late.”
An interesting note is how much Greenwood can influence a game despite going more than 38 minutes without scoring a field goal. Greenwood hit a trey at the 19:36 mark of the first half and again at 18:28 to hand the Lobos an 8-2 lead. He then missed ten straight shots.
“His problem was he made the first two shots and then he thought he could make all of them,” said Neal. “But I’m never going to criticize how he plays or what he does. He does so many other things to win us ball games.
“I was really nervous about that game. You know they (Falcons) are going to be tough-minded and give you everything they have because anybody who does what they do day in and day out is going to be mentally tough.”
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.