Stevens: Lobos hold Off Wyoming 52-49 in Overtime
New Mexico Lobos Men’s Basketball – In WisePies Arena/The Pit
Saturday: New Mexico 52, Wyoming 49 (OT)
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
At times, it was pretty. At times there were some moments of rhythm and basketball beauty – but not very often as the New Mexico Lobos and the Wyoming Cowboys often resembled two rugby teams in a rough-and-tumble, anything-goes scrum.
At other times, they looked like two heavyweight boxers locked in the corner of a ring exchanging body blows. This game was physical.
And, of course, it was overtime. Amazingly, unbelievably — for the fourth consecutive game, the Lobos and the Cowboys had to march into extra time to determine a winner.
What happened Saturday night in WisePies Arena was a wrestling match dressed up like a Mountain West basketball game and the last man standing was the New Mexico Lobos on a 52-49 technical knockout.
“It was a hard-fought game. I didn’t really want it to go to overtime,” said Lobo Coach Craig Neal. “I think our guys persevered and made some plays when we needed to make them. I thought we were really, really good defensively.”
The win raises UNM’s record to 15-15 overall and 7-11 in Mountain West play. Wyoming falls to 22-9 and 11-7. The Lobos next play in the Mountain West Tournament on Wednesday in Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center.
“We’ll all grow from (the win) and hopefully it will make us play better in the Mountain West Tournament,” said Neal.
The Lobos held Wyoming without a point in overtime until the game clicked inside 30 seconds and UNM had a six-point lead. “I thought tonight we were terrific defensively, and I thought our guys really battled,” said Neal.
Of course, Wyoming made it interesting. Larry Nance Jr. made a trey with 15 seconds to play to pull the Cowboys to 50-49. Sam Logwood made one free throw with 13 seconds to go and UNM was up 51-49.
Nance missed a trey with two ticks to play and Tim Jacobs added a free throw with one second left to form the 52-49 final.
The win snapped an eight-game losing streak for New Mexico and allows them to head into the upcoming Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas with a one-game taste of momentum. It also was the perfect ending that Coach Craig Neal was looking to stamp Senior Night for Hugh Greenwood and Deshawn Delaney.
The postgame celebration was a wild one as the majority of The Pit hung around to say goodbye to these special seniors. For sure, there would not have been as many in the celebration if the Lobos had not pulled out this win in overtime.
“I just wanted the fans to stay and celebrate what these two kids have meant to our program and this community, even though we haven’t had the year we wanted,” Neal said of the large number of Pit fanatics, who stayed for the postgame celebration for Greenwood and Delaney.
The Lobos took control of overtime quickly and that proved to be the difference. The Cowboys made a charge, but really waited too long to make up that six-point hole.
The Lobos got 14 points inside from Obij Aget, 14 from Devon Williams and 12 from Greenwood. Delaney did not play, out with a broken hand.
UNM came out the half up 17-14 and stretched it to 23-17 at the 15:46 break. UNM then put the Cowboys on their heels and The Pit on its feet. Aget popped in an 18-footer at the 14:14 mark to put UNM up 25-17. Greenwood then came up with a steal, back away from a layup and bombed a trey over a collapsing Wyoming defense. UNM was up 28-17 and the Cowboys asked for a team huddle.
At the 12:19 mark, UNM was up 30-20. At 10:37, UNM was up 32-25 and the Cowboys continued to hit the treys. At 9:43, it was 32-30. Wyoming then got a steal that led to a Nance dunk: 32-all. Aget got the ball inside, backed Nance out of position and scored adding a free throw: 35-32.
UNM went up 39-35 on a Greenwood trey but Wyoming claimed a 40-39 lead with 3:37 to play – then Aget hit a free throw to make it 40-40. UNM got a follow inside from Devon Wiliams: 42-40. Adams got a follow for Wyoming: 42-42. The Lobos then missed a shot and Wyoming turned it back over. UNM called time with 1:23 to play, still locked at 42-all.
The Lobos then took a 44-42 lead as Tim Jacobs drove the lane and flipped up a reverse layup as the shot-clock expired Grabau, a 95-percent free-throw shooter, tied the game at 44-44 with 36.5 seconds to go.
The teams went into overtime and UNM took charge.
First Half: New Mexico 17, Wyoming 14.
In a way, a three-point halftime lead was huge when you consider the two teams combined for 31 points. UNM used a 5-0 spurt at the close of the half to grab that 17-14 lead.
Wyoming had nine points at the 12:32 mark and then scored five points the rest of the way in. You can credit defense for this scoreboard – but only to a point. Neither team played well or with any sort of rhythm. There were a lot of shots missed that probably should not have been missed.
The start could not have been much worse for the Lobos. UNM missed ten shots and made one and fell into a 9-2 hole after leading 2-0. Greenwood then hit two buckets to help UNM go into the 7:51 media break down 11-8. The Lobos kept battling and a jumper by Greenwood on an in-bounds play finally handed UNM a 12-11 lead at 6:29.
There was good defense played by both teams in the half, but there also was a lot of sloppy play and quite a few easy shots missed by both teams. It was not a pretty half. Wyoming finally scored at 3:57 to form a 12-12 tie.
The Lobos went down 14-12, but threw out a 5-0 run to carry a 17-14 lead into a Wyoming timeout with 51.7 seconds to play.
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.