New
Mexico remained unbeaten in conference play on its home floor Saturday
afternoon with a 75-49 romp over a San Diego State team weakened
by injury and illness to two ot its key players.
The Lobos, who had lost at SDSU by five points on Jan. 21, held
serve on their home court in The Pit with an unexpectedly easy 26-point
victory. UNM now is 17-10 for the season and improved to 8-4 in
the Mountain West Conference, including a 6-0 record at home. The
Aztecs fell to 18-7 and now have the same 8-4 league mark as the
Lobos.
It's difficult to imagine New Mexico playing a better game. They
combined their usual junk-yard-dog defense with sensational shooting,
hitting 26 of 52 or 50% of their field goal attempts. UNM also meshed
10 of 16 three-point tries for a hot 62.5% from beyond the arc.
The Lobos also sank 13 of 15 free throw attemps for a stellar 86.7%
from the line.
That, coupled with a defense that seemingly gets better every game,
was enough to salt away the game. The tough Lobos "D"
held the Aztecs to a season-low of 49 points, and their 26-point
victory margin was San Diego State's biggest shellacking since dropping
a 98-69 contest to Washington five years ago.
But SDSU wasn't at full strength. The Aztecs' leading scorer, Kyle Spain, who lit up the Lobos for 30 points in his last outing against
them in San Diego, was ill and didn't start either half. But Spain
toughed it out, and still managed to lead his team in scoring with
18 points.
Perhaps a bigger loss was an injury during the first minute of the
game to Aztecs forward Billy White. The 6-8, 226-lb. forward collided
with UNM's Roman Martinez and injured a knee. White was treated
in the locker room and watched the rest of the game on crutches.
He had scored 100% of his field goal attempts for 24 points in SDSU's
last win over Wyoming, and had been shooting at a 77% clip in MWC
games. Until today.
For New Mexico, it was The Tony Danridge and Roman Martinez Show.
Danridge led all scorers with 25 points and Martinez added 17. The
two scored the first 15 of their team's points. combined for 30
of UNM's 40 points at halftime, and continued to find the net in
the second half. Danridge also had three rebounds, four assists
and a steal. Martinez had five rebounds and two assists to go with
his scoring.
Freshman Philip McDonald also earned his coach's praise as the third
Lobo in double figures. McDonald scored 10 points, snared five rebounds
and had three assists and a steal.
For statistics fans, the Lobos won the rebound battle by 35-25,
outscored SDSU 20-12 in the paint, and scored 20 points off Aztec
turnovers compared to giving up just seven points with their own
turnovers.
Head coach Steve Alford said after the game that he "couldn't
be more proud of this team. The guys gave a big-time effort. We
shared the ball and rebounded at a high level. It's hard to find
fault in anybody who played tonight."
San Diego coach Steve Fisher summed up the game simply by observing
that the Lobos "were sensational."
"They
played sensational offensive basketball. Everybody made shots, and
when you do that, it opens that rim up to what seems like the Pacific
Ocean," Fisher said. The loss gave the Aztecs coach an amazingly
similar record to Alford's in the same 18-year coaching span. Fisher
is now 349-219 and Alford is 349-202.
Fisher concluded by lauding the crowd of 16,801 that rocked The
Pit with their noisy support of the Cherry and Silver. "This
is a team," Fisher said of the Lobos, "that when you come
into The Pit, they don't think anyone can beat them."
Saturday afternoon, it's unlikely that any team in the conference
could have beaten the Lobos. San Diego didn't even come close.
The next game for New Mexico will be a 6:30 p.m. game in The Pit
against TCU on Tuesday, Feb. 24. San Diego State goes home to take
on BYU at 7:30 p.m. the same night.