New Mexico (20-4, 6-2 MWC)
moved into a three-way tie with UNLV and San Diego State after the
Rebels
defeated the Aztecs 65-63 in Las Vegas Saturday afternoon.
Against Wyoming
(18-6, 4-4),
the Lobos struggled in the first half hitting just 1-of-7 three
pointers and
turning the ball over nine times and trailed most of the half.
"Besides
putting
offense basketball back a couple decades, it was an old school
Saturday and
maybe we went back to the 40's when it came to offense,” joked
head coach Steve Alford in his opening comments. “I really thought it was two
teams battling
like crazy. I think you saw what happens when you have a week
off. Both teams
had a week off and we were a little stagnant offensively, but
both teams really
made it hard on one another to get good looks.”
The Cowboys
were buoyed by
shooting guards Francisco Cruz and Luke Martinez in the first
half as the duo
combined to scored 18 of Wyoming’s 23 first half points,
shooting a collective
6-of-11 while the entire Pokes squad shot just 8-of-27 in the
first half. Cruz would finish with a game-high 14 points, Martinez with nine.
"We knew they
were
going to play a lot of minutes,” said freshman Hugh Greenwood,
who scored 8
points and pulled in seven rebounds. “They would eventually wear
down. Kendall Williams, Tony Snell, Phillip McDonald, and Demetrius Walker did
a really good
job. We tired them out and that is the thing that gets us over
the line is our
depth. I think we outscored their bench four to nothing in a
low-scoring game.
We came off the bench and played really well. We played really
good defense and
we know that our bench is probably the most important thing
going forward to
future games."
UNM’s bench
outscored
Wyoming 14-0 and outscored the Cowboys 18-12 in the paint. The
Lobos were lead
by Kendall Williams, who scored 10 points and had five assists.
A.J. Hardeman
added nine points and eight rebounds while Drew Gordon scored
seven points and
pulled in 13 rebounds despite being benched for most of the
first half with
foul trouble.
Alford said he
and the
coaches made offensive adjustments at halftime rather than
defensive changes,
Cruz and Martinez were mostly silenced in the second half and
UNM was able to
take the lead and control the game after that.
Alford said
Wyoming’s
playing style, playing tough defense and reducing possessions,
made the game
the defensive, low-scoring affair it turned out to be.
“They do a very
good job of
playing their style and wanting to reduce possessions and I
thought that they
got us into their tempo,” said Alford. “We tried to do a lot of
different
things and they went as far as not putting anyone on the line at
free throws.
They did a lot of good things to take away our transition game,
but to be able
to have a night where we shoot 39 percent and only score 48
points and win by
10 speaks volumes of the effort and how hard the guys are
working.”
Wyoming came
out hot and
took a 10-4 lead as Cruz hit two three-pointers and had a dunk
within the first
3 minutes of the game. The Cowboys kept the lead as they forced
UNM into bad
shooting and turnovers in the early going. But Wyoming’s own
poor shooting kept
them from grabbing the initiative and New Mexico eventually
surged back.
Trailing 13-8,
the Lobos
went on an 11-3 run to take a 19-16 lead after a Jamal Fenton
steal and lay-up
with 3:28 left in the first half. But the Cowboys managed to
finish the half on
a 7-0 run to take a 23-19 halftime lead.
Sparked by its
defensive
effort, New Mexico opened the second half on a 10-2 run to take
a 29-25 lead
with 12:07 left in the game. The Cowboys opened the half with
five turnovers
and hitting just two field goals in the first 12 minutes of the
second half.
Wyoming would finish shooting 6-of-27 (22.2%) in the second half
and 14-of-54
(25.9%) due to UNM’s defensive effort.
Alford said he
was very
happy with his team’s effort Saturday.
“I told the
guys in the
locker room that we have grown,” said Alford. “We had a really
bad second half
against San Diego State, we didn't shoot the ball well, we
didn't take care of
the ball and we were stagnant offensively and then we shut it
down and didn't
guard. Then tonight, we couldn't get in the flow at all for 40
minutes
offensively, and yet we found a way to win and that's growth and
I hold the
team that.“