Stevens: Lobo Rally Falls Short 59-55 at Fresno
New Mexico Lobos Men’s Basketball – On The Mountain West Road
Saturday: Fresno State 59, New Mexico 55
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
“It’s one of those things that’s like a broken record,” said Lobo Coach Craig Neal. “It’s frustrating and nobody feels the pain worse than I do.”
The pain from the New Mexico Lobos’ 59-55 Mountain West loss Saturday night at Fresno State had a particularly cruel taste to it.
The Lobos roared back from a 22-point deficit in the first half and a 10-point deficit in the second half, but could never scratch closer to the Bulldogs than two points.
“It’s frustrating,” said Neal. “We made some really good basketball plays and then we didn’t make some plays we needed to make to win the game. We just couldn’t get the shot to tie it.”
The Lobos made some key mistakes down the stretch, missed some important free throws, but Fresno State was doing a lot of the same stuff. The Bulldogs’ edge was they had the lead at the end and the mistakes had some room for error on the scoreboard.
The Lobos needed to be pretty much perfect – and couldn’t do it dropping their eighth straight game. It was not a good month for the Lobos as they went winless in February. UNM’s next game is in March – in The Pit.
“I thought our kids played with passion except for the first eight minutes,” said Neal. “You can’t let them get out to a 30 to 8 lead. They score 30 in the first eight minutes and then they scored 29 points the rest of the way.
“They (Lobos) showed a lot of fight. They never one time gave in.”
Fresno ran to a 30-8 lead in the first half, but a 17-2 Lobo run helped UNM close to 32-25 at the half. UNM surged early in the second half to make it a 35-33 game, but Fresno State went on a run to make it 46-36. UNM again closed to two points – but no closer.
“When you get it to two points or you get it to four, you can’t let a team go on a run. It can’t happen,” said Neal. “We can’t battle from that far back and then have mental mistakes.”
The Lobos came out of the half down 32-25 and cut the deficit to 35-33. The Bulldogs then ran it up to 46-36. New Mexico surged back and had the ball down 46-43, but turned it over. Fresno’s Guerrero then scored on a drive and added a free throw to make it 49-43.
Fresno State went up 53-46 but again the Lobos closed. Tim Jacobs drove the baseline and touched a shot off the glass to make it 53-50.
The Bulldogs added a free throw before Obij Aget threw down a dunk to make the count 54-52. Fresno added another free throw: 55-52 with 2:06 to play.
UNM came down on offense and the Lobo offense bogged down as the clock shot ticked down. Neal was forced to burn his final timeout with eighteen seconds to shoot. There was 1:38 left on the game shot. UNM came out of its huddle and turned the ball over as a pass in the corner bounced off Greenwood’s hands.
It didn’t hurt that much as Fresno turned it over on the other end. Deshawn Delaney then drove and got fouled with 1:00 to play. The Lobo senior made one: 55-53.
“Free throws are very, very important and if you can’t shoot 80 percent down the stretch, you are going to have a hard time winning,” said Neal. “We can’t continue to shoot 60 percent from the foul line and 13 percent from the three.”
Fresno State’s Harris then drove the ball off a screen at the other end and drew a fifth foul on Aget with 28.4 to play. Harris made one: 56-53. The Lobos worked for a 3-point shot. Jacobs drove the lane and kicked it to Greenwood in the corner near the baseline. The Lobos senior was well defended and kicked the ball back out to the perimeter.
Fresno State stole it and UNM quickly fouled.
The Bulldogs Emmanuel Owootoah hit one free shot (57-53) with 15.1 seconds to go. The Lobos Devon Williams scored on a layup with nine seconds to play to cut the gap to 57-55. UNM was forced to foul Harris with seven seconds to go and he hit both free shots to ice the final 59-55 count.
“It’s not been a lot of fun,” said Neal of UNM’s losing streak. “It’s back to the drawing board and try to keep working and try to keep these guys in a positive frame of mind.
“We have Senior Night coming and it’s important that we are ready for that game.”
Delaney led UNM at Fresno State with 15 points. Aget had 13 points and 12 boards. Greenwood had three points going 1-of-7 from the field and Sam Logwood had three points going 1-of-7. Xavier Adams had eight points shooting 4-of-4 from the floor. Fresno State got 14 points from Harris
First Half: Fresno State 32, New Mexico 25
It could have been a lot worse for the Lobos. New Mexico got behind by 22 points, but used a 17-2 run to close at the half and pull to 32-25 at the break.
The Lobos fell into their huge hole quickly and for a while it didn’t seem the Lobos had a solution to stop the avalanche of Bulldog buckets. Fresno State went up 26-6 and 30-8.
The Lobos then came out of a huddle and got on a run. UNM used a 9-0 run to cut the Fresno State lead to 30-17 and the Bulldogs called a timeout at 3:58 having lost momentum on both ends of the court. At the 3:04 media break, UNM had cut their deficit to 30-19 – thanks to an 11-0 run.
The Lobos pulled to 30-21 before Fresno finally got off 30 and went into a 32-21 lead. The Lobos continued to control the scoreboard until the final buzzer and that 17-2 run got them back into the game.
Delaney led UNM in the half with eight points and Aget added seven points and seven boards. Fresno State shot 50 percent from the floor in the half and UNM shot 38 percent.
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