Stevens: Neal's Lobos Fall 69-59 To Boise State
New Mexico Lobos Men’s Basketball – In WisePies Arena/The Pit
Sunday: Boise State 69, New Mexico 59
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
This one hurt for a lot of reasons. The loss came in WisePies Arena. It was by double digits: ten points. And obviously it wasn’t the Lobos who took control of the game during the crunch run.
It also wasn’t the Lobos best defensive effort although they once again held a team under 70 points.
The Boise State Broncos pretty much threw a two-man shooting crew at the Lobos Sunday afternoon night in The Pit, — Derrick Marks and James Webb – who combined for 54 points and that was too much for the Lobos to handle in a 69-59 Mountain West loss.
“We didn’t do a very good job,” said Lobo Coach Craig Neal. “We didn’t change up (defense) enough. We went against everything we’ve been doing. We didn’t change up our zones enough.
“If you let a team like that get into a rhythm, they are hard to stop.”
Marks, a senior, played like a senior taking over the game late and making clutch shots. Webb was simply unconscious shooting seven treys and knocking down all seven. Marks finished with 31 points going 10-of-16 from the floor and 10-of-11 from the free-throw line. Webb was 8-of-9 from the field and finished with 23 points.
The rest of the Broncos scored 15 points Sunday in WisePies Arena. Boise shot 52 percent from the field in the second half. The loss drops UNM to 12-6 overall and 4-2 in the Mountain West. Boise State is 12-6 and 2-3 in league play.
“(Marks) played really well,” said Neal. “He is playing as good as anybody in the conference. He did a nice job and he was able to get to the line. (Webb) got good looks and he made them. You have to give a guy credit when he makes them.”
The Lobos shot decently from the field but couldn’t match the Broncos long range – and really didn’t have an answer for Webb outside and Marks all over. Boise State went 11-of-26 from long range and the Lobos went 2-of-14 from behind the line.
The Lobos got 13 points from Delaney while Greenwood took some fade-away jumpers, went 3-of-14 from the field to finish with six points. The Lobos led 31-30 at the half, but were outscored 39-28 in the second half.
The two teams played tightly through most of the second half. UNM had a 55-55 tie on a drive by Tim Jacobs and at 4:55 UNM’s J.J. N’Ganga was at the line shooting two with a chance to put the Lobos up. He missed and Bronco Nick Duncan hit a trey for Boise to put the Broncos up 58-55.
UNM’s Goodman hit two free throws at 3:17 to pull the Lobos to 58-57, but that’s where it got away from the Lobos.
“We couldn’t stop ‘em,” said Neal. “We should have given some different looks. And then we took some bad shots. We have to learn what’s a good shot and what’s a bad shot.”
After Goodman’s free throws, Marks hit a big jumper for Boise and Jacobs had a turnover on the other end. Webb then hit a trey and the Broncs were up 63-57 with 1:30 to play.
The Lobos called time, but came out of their huddle only to have a Greenwood pass picked off by Webb on the baseline. UNM then fouled Marks, who gave the Lobos a chance by missing the front end of a one-and-one.
Delaney scored to make it 63-59, but Boise State hit its next six free throws and UNM could not come up with any buckets. Marks hit two free throws at 1:05 to put Boise State up 65-59.
“I thought Deshawn gave us some energy and made some big plays to get us going,” said Neal. “We has a lot of guys who were inconsistent and didn’t play well. We had about eight guys who were inconsistent.”
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.