New Mexico (22-6, 8-4
Mountain West Conference) suffered its worst loss of the season as
TCU’s
defense harassed the Lobos into 16 turnovers and kept UNM cold
shooting from
behind the three-point line, hitting just 4-of-17 (23.5%).
The Lobos
allowed a
season-high 83 points and the Frogs made 11 treys, tying for the
most against
the Lobos this season. After shooting 51.7% (15-29) in the 1st
half and making
2 of their first 3 shots to start the 2nd half, UNM finished the
game at 41.8%
(23-of-55), shooting just 6-of-23 (26%) from the field the final
18 minutes of
the game.
"It was a tough
road
trip," said Alford on the post-game show on 770AM KKOB.
"Tonight, in
the second half in particular, we were very poor defensively.
Our guys are
frustrated. We're (coaches) frustrated. We have to get home.”
"There are
reasons that
Colorado State and TCU haven't been beaten on their home courts
this year,”
Alford continued “I thought TCU played extremely well and shot
the ball
extremely well. I didn't like how we guarded."
The Lobos were
paced by A.J.
Hardeman’s 15 points while Kendall Williams came off the bench
to add 13 points.
Drew Gordon scored seven points and pulled down 12 rebounds. TCU
(17-11, 7-5) finished with
five players in double figures, paced by J.R. Cadot, who scored
15 points and
pulled down 10 rebounds, and Hank Thorns, who scored 14 points
and had nine
assists.
Running with a
revamped
starting line-up that included guards Jamal Fenton and Phillip McDonald in
place of Hugh Greenwood and Kendall Williams, the Lobos had a
slow start,
falling behind 13-4 early before rallying to cut the lead to
13-10 on a fast
break lay up by Williams with 12:16 left in the half.
The Lobos took
the lead off
a pair of dunks by A.J. Hardeman and Drew Gordon to assume a
23-20 lead at the
7:13 mark. TCU would battle back to take back the lead on a trey
by Garlon Green to make the score 30-28 with 5:13 left. The two teams
would keep it close
the rest of the first half and went into halftime tied 38-38
after a lay up by
Greenwood at the buzzer.
The two teams
came out even
in the second half. UNM pulled to 48-48 tie on a pair of free
throws by Hardeman,
then TCU went on a 10-0 run to take a 58-48 lead with just over
10 minutes left
in the game.
The Horned
Frogs soon pushed
the lead to 13 but UNM rallied, cutting the 68-60 on a Tony Snell trey with
4:01 left in the game. But TCU closed the game on a 15-4 run.
"I thought they
did a
really good job with their pressure and we didn't handle it
well," said
Alford. "They scored a lot on transition play and they do that a
lot in
this building. We played about as poorly in the second half as
we have played all
year. But our league is hard. We've been trying to tell people
that."
With the loss,
UNM falls
into a first place tie with UNLV at 8-4 with two games
remaining. Like the
Rebels, San Diego St. entered the day a game behind the Lobos in
league
standings. With a win against visiting Colorado St., the Aztecs
could also
enter into a tie with UNM.
The Lobos host
Air Force on
Wednesday and Boise St. on Saturday. Both games are at The Pit.
"We have two
games left
at home and we're in first place," said Alford. "It's not the
end of
the world. We have to get past it. If we hold serve at home, we
are going to be
league champs."