“Tony Snell had a very good game offensively which was a huge key,” said
head coach
Steve Alford. “I thought the key to the game was Kendall Williams.
I thought
the job he did on Hank Thorns made it really difficult for him.
Thorns is a
terrific player and (Kendall) kept him off-balanced most of the
night. Kendall
had that assignment most of the night. That is probably as good
defensively that
Kendall has been since he has been here and that has been a good
growth to
see.“
TCU
(12-8, 2-3 MWC) finished with only one starter in double
figures, guard J.R.
Cadot scored 15 while Thorns shot just 3-of-7 for the game to
score 8 points as
TCU shot just 17-of-42 (40.5%) from the field and 8-of-19
(42.1%) from the
three-point line.
“I
think the key word is aggressiveness,” said Williams. “I’ve
taken a more active
role on both ends of the floor. I got into a better rhythm on
defense and they
say that defense leads to offense so it’s easy to get confidence
that way. I’m
trying to be balanced and lead a good team that already has a
lot of talent.”
New Mexico (17-4, 3-2) had a particularly good game in the paint,
pulling down 24
defensive rebounds while limiting the Horned Frogs to three
offensive rebounds
while out-scoring TCU 32-16 in the lane and 12-0 on
second-chance points.
Drew Gordon led all players with 11 rebounds while scoring 7 points
while Jamal Fenton came off the bench to score nine points. Amric Fields led
TCU with 16
points off the bench.
“Overall,
it was a terrific win and we
needed these two,” said Alford. “We have made some improvements
this week and
that is a very quick turn around. We have a busy week next
week.”
The
two teams traded shots early on before TCU managed a short burst
to take a
16-13 lead as the Lobos went 0-4 from the three-point line over
the first five
minutes. New Mexico responded with an 8-2 run keyed by
consecutive scores by
senior Phillip McDonald, who finished with nine points with
4-of-9 shooting, to
take a 27-18 lead with just under five minutes left.
New
Mexico absorbed a run from the Horned Toads and took a 33-26
lead into
halftime. The Lobos then opened the second half with a 12-2 run
to take a 45-28
lead with 15:54 left in the second half.
TCU
trimmed the lead to 51-45 with nine minutes left in the game but
soon faded as
UNM imposed its will to push the lead back to 17 points with
just under two
minutes left in the game.
“We
weren’t going to out-run and jump this team,” said Alford. “They
are long and
athletic. They have good size and we had to get into them and
block them out. I
have to look at the tape but from what we viewed live and
statistically, it
looked like we did a good job blocking out.”
Alford
said his team did “a great job on rebounds” against TCU.
“We
did a great job on rebounds,” said Alford. “We have been a good
rebounding team
all year. To hold somebody at three offensive rebounds is really
good. Our
board play has been getting better and better.”
McDonald
said Wednesday’s game at Air Force will be a big game for the
Lobos, who are
now just one game out of first place with San Diego State’s
77-60 loss at
Colorado State.
“These
next to games are really important now that San Diego State just
dropped one
against CSU, and that put us in the hunt again,” McDonald said.
“We were one game
behind from first place and if we can get this next two in the
win column we’ll
be in good shape.”
McDonald
said the teams’ current 13-day stretch and the challenge from
the coaching
staff are beginning to pay off the UNM.
“Practices
and the coaches have been very intense these past few days,
every time Coach
Alford steps on the court he is giving it his all so we have to
do the same
thing,” said McDonald. “We’re trying to build toughness and just
keep at it.”