Stevens: UNM Lobos Fall At Wyoming 63-62 in OT
New Mexico Lobos Men’s Basketball – On The Mountain West Road
Saturday: Wyoming 63, New Mexico 62 (OT)
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
This was a dagger into soft tissue. This one hurt not because a loss at Wyoming is so horrible, but because the New Mexico Lobos had a major road victory twice within their grasp, and twice let it slip away.
The Lobos made more than enough plays to beat the Wyoming Cowboys, but made just enough mistakes to give the 63-62 overtime win back to Wyoming.
“We did everything we needed to do to win the game,” said Lobo Coach Craig Neal, who saw his Lobos fall to 13-7 and 5-3 in Mountain West play. “We just had some mental breakdowns.
“The game was there for us to win and we didn’t make the plays to get it done. It’s not good when you give a game away. I’m not real happy right now. Guys that don’t win championships are happy with splits. I’m not happy with the split.”
The Lobos brought a win over UNLV into Laramie and it looked like the Lobos would return to Albuquerque with a significant road sweep. The Lobos were a defensive stop away from winning in regulation and maybe a pass away from winning in overtime.
“We had the perfect opportunity,” said Neal.
The Lobos fouled a 3-point shooter at the end of regulation to allow Wyoming (17-3, 6-1 MW) to force an overtime. The Lobos threw away a pass in the closing seconds of overtime to allow Larry Nance Jr., to throw down a dunk with 3.2 seconds to play.
“We had a lot of guys playing with heart and guys playing with great energy,” said Neal. “But we didn’t play with our heads on the last play of regulation and we didn’t play with our heads on the last play of overtime when we threw the ball away.”
The Lobos were up 54-51 in the closing ticks of regulation, but UNM’s Hugh Greenwood was whistled for a foul on Josh Adams on a long trey and the Cowboy hit the trifecta at the line to knot the game with 10 seconds to play.
The Lobos were up 62-61 with 14.9 seconds to play in overtime and bringing the ball in after a single free throw by Nance. The plan was to get the ball to Greenwood and have him go to the line. UNM got the ball to Greenwood, but he threw a pass near the half court line that Nance stole. Wyoming quickly attacked and Nance came off the baseline to throw down his dunk with 3.2 seconds to play.
That ended it.
“The guys have to start making better decisions,” said Neal. “All we had to do was get fouled. We got it to the guy (Greenwood) we wanted it to go to for him to get fouled.”
The game was pretty much as billed — defense, defense with a few bursts of impressive offense.
The duel between Greenwood and Nance Jr., (at different positions) also was a showcase of talent between two of the top players in the Mountain West. Greenwood had 23 points and Nance had 23 points.
Adams added 20 points for Wyoming. The Lobos shot 45.8 percent from the field and went 8-of-17 from 3-point range with Greenwood going 5-of-8. Wyoming shot 39.1 percent and went 8-of-23 from long range.
A big difference on the scoreboard was Wyoming going 19-of-22 from the free-throw line to 10-of-10 for the Lobos.
Wyoming came out of the halftime break up 21-20 and the teams went back and forth to the final gun.
With 6:35 to play, UNM was up 41-38. A Wyoming trey locked the game at 41-all. UNM called time with 5:11 to play. Greenwood and Delaney scored for the Lobos to help form a 45-45 tie with 3:38 to play. The teams locked up at 45-all and 47-all before Greenwood hit a long trey over good pressure: 50-47. Nance flipped in two free throws to make it 50-49 with 1:21 to play.
UNM came out of its huddle and Greenwood threw up a tough trey coming off a screen and missed. UNM got the rebound, missed another jumper, but Obij Aget was under the rim to get the follow: 52-49 with 26.6 to play. Wyoming got two free throws – 52-51 – and the ‘Pokes fouled Greenwood with 16.7 to play. Greenwood knocked them both down: 54-51.
Wyoming got a break with 10 seconds to play when Greenwood fouled Adams on a 3-pointer. Adams tied the game at 54-all. Greenwood missed a tough running jumper on the baseline and Nance got the rebound and launched from about 20 feet shy of the half-court line. His shot came off the glass, went into the hole, rolled around – and rolled out. Overtime.
The Lobos quickly took control of the board in overtime. Greenwood threw up an impossible trey trying to beat the shot clock that put the Lobos up 59-56. Williams added another trey to give UNM a 62-57 lead. Wyoming hit a trey: 62-60 and that score was carried into a timeout with 53.1 second to play.
UNM came out of the huddle and Delaney missed on a drive. Nance went to the line with 14.9 to play – missed the first, but then pulled the score to 62-61. Wyoming needed to foul or get a quick steal.
Wyoming got the steal off a floating Greenwood pass. Nance got the steal and Wyoming quickly attacked — which led to a Nance dunk. Wyoming had the improbable 63-62 lead and UNM was bringing the ball in with 3.2 ticks to play.
The long pass was deflected and the Cowboys had the win.
First Half: Wyoming 21, New Mexico 20
As predicted, it was defense, defense, defense with a dash of scoring. The Lobos last held a lead at 16-15 on two free throws by Delaney. Wyoming grabbed leads of 18-16 and 21-18 on 3-pointers by Grabau. The two teams settled on a 21-20 Wyoming lead heading into the break.
The Lobos got six points apiece from Delaney and Greenwood. Adams had eight points and Grabau had six points. Wyoming went 5-of-15 from 3-point range and UNM went 2-of-7 with both treys coming from Greenwood.
Neither team had a fast-break basket in the first half.
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.