New Mexico (22-4, 8-2
Mountain West Conference) strengthened it’s hold on first place in
the MWC with
a terrific second half effort that eclipsed a sluggish first half
that saw the
Lobos trail the seemingly faster, more aggressive Rebels, who fell
to 22-6, 6-4 in the MWC.
“I couldn’t be
more happy
with our basketball team,” said head coach Steve Alford. “Our
guys have been
amazing. We still have a lot to do, a lot to prove. This race is
far from over
with. But you separate yourself from a good UNLV team by two
games… I don’t
know if we’re the best team in this league yet but there’s no
team in the last
month that has guarded like we’re guarding.”
Gordon, who
shot 13-of-20
with 16 defensive rebounds, became the first Lobo to post a
20-20 double-double
since Jimmy Allen scored 20 points and pulled in 20 rebounds at
New Mexico State in the 1976 season,. Tony Snell added 12 points and 5
assists just days
after scoring zero against San Diego State and Demetrius Walker
came off the
bench to score nine points and three rebounds.
“That was
probably my best
game, and things were just falling for me,” said Gordon. “The basketball gods
were good to me
today. Vegas was a tough loss for us losing by 17. If we lose,
it should be a
dog fight, and with that game we gave up a little. Coming in to
the Pit, it is
a different environment and our fans were amazing today. It helped us a lot at
the end of the
game when we got tired.”
Tied with UNLV
38-38 at the
12:14 mark of the second half after a pair of Anthony Marshall
free throws. New
Mexico then found a sixth gear and went on a 16-1 run powered by
Gordon, who
scored eight points during the run including a pair of dunks
that drove the
decibel level in The Pit up to painful levels.
Snell came
alive in the
stretch as well, throwing down his own thunderous dunk and
hitting a trey to
drive the run. UNLV responded with a 5-0 run as Marshall hit a
trey and a
lay-up but answered with a 5-0 run to push the lead to 3:27 left
in the game
and scored the final six points of the game before students
rushed the court.
“It was a tough
hard fought
game in the first half where neither team could get going and we
just talked to
our guys at halftime (and said) ‘Be patient, don’t turn the ball
over and
things will get going for you – just keep guarding.’ And that’s
what happened,”
said Alford.
UNM shot
17-of-33 (51.5%) in
the second half and 25-of-59 for the game and out-scored UNLV
32-14 in the
paint after being outscored 10-8 in the post in the first half.
Defensively the
Lobos
reversed the trend they found against the Rebels in Las Vegas,
forcing 17
turnovers and tallying nine steals while only turning the ball
over 10 times –
and turning the ball over just once in the second half. New
Mexico also held
UNLV to season lows for points and field goal percentage as the
Rebels shot
31.1% (14-of-45) from the floor, 23.5% (4-17) in the 2nd half
“It is always
difficult
coming to The Pit and playing a New Mexico team because they are
so balanced
and we were extremely concerned about Kendall Williams’ ability
at the three
and Snell’s threes and McDonald coming off the bench,” said UNLV
head coach
Dave Rice. “I think we did a good job at limiting them at the
three point but
Gordon has 27 and 20. It is hard to win a game on the road that
way. We tried
to battle and I thought that we got some good looks in the
second half but we
weren’t able to get them in.”
Both teams
traded baskets
early on as neither team was able to find the groove
offensively. With the game
tied 11-11 at 10:39 left in the first half, UNLV managed a 10-2
run as the
Lobos shooters went cold. The Rebels pushed the lead to 21-13 on
a Chace Stanback
trey with 7:10 left in the half. New Mexico responded with a
10-1 run kicked
off by a Gordon dunk and driven by 3-of-3 free throw shooting.
UNM held the
lead 23-22 with
2:55 left in the half after that flurry but the Rebels would
take a 27-26 lead
into half after a Snell dunk ended the scoring.
Alford had
nothing for
praise for UNM’s sold out crowd after the game.
“Our fans are
great and I
saw a “we are New Mexico” banner being held and I hope that the
message was
sent,” he said. “We are New Mexico and we are proud of that. We
are proud of
this program and obviously this community and our institution.”