Lobos stumble
Clavell scores 24 for the Rams as they take over first in MWC
Colorado State topples New Mexico in the Pit
There was no drama this time. Gian Clavell made sure of it. In the highly-anticipated rematch of a contentious, incident-riddled Jan. 14 game in Fort Collins, the Colorado State senior guard scored 24 points on Tuesday night and led the Rams to a comfortable 68-56 win over the New Mexico Lobos. CSU took over sole possession of first place in the Mountain West standings.
“We ran into a team that’s playing extremely well,” Lobos coach Craig Neal said. “You’ve got to give them credit. They played harder.”
It was the first win for the Rams (19-9, 11-4 MWC) in the Pit since 2007, improves their record in the arena to 5-44 and was also the first victory for coach Larry Eustachy in Albuquerque.
The loss for UNM (16-12, 9-7 MWC), means it falls to just a half game ahead of Fresno State for the six spot in the MWC standings. The top five teams in the final league standings avoid the play-in round of the Mountain West Tournament, which is in two weeks in Las Vegas, Nev.
In the sixth game since shifting to a four-guard lineup in the absence of senior power forward Tim Williams (stress reaction, left foot), the Lobos again struggled to score with any regularity. And the team that is among the national leaders in free throws made per game couldn’t even get to the line with regularity on Tuesday.
“We had seven free throws (UNM hit 7-of-12),” Neal said. “I mean, we’re first in the country in free throw rate (free throw attempts/field goal attempts) and we just couldn’t get anything going toward the rim tonight.”
CSU had nine steals and three blocks and also forced three jump balls against Lobo players trying to score in the low post. UNM seemed to become more and more hesitant to drive the lane after.
Junior guard Elijah Brown led UNM with 20 points while Sam Logwood (11) and Obij Aget (10) joined him in double figures. But the 56 points scored was the lowest for the team since a 77-46 loss to Arizona on Dec. 12.
While UNM cut a seven-point halftime deficit to 40-38 with 15:23 remaining, Clavell then took over. The MWC Player of the Year candidate scored 10 straight points for CSU and put a finger to his lips to quiet the
announced Pit crowd of 12,078 on more than one occasion.
“I was just having fun,” Clavell said.
Clavell, despite starting the game missing his first four shots, was on almost the entire night (he was 4-of-8 from 3-point range). Somehow he seemed at his best when Lobo sophomore Dane Kuiper defended him, according to Clavell, as well anybody has all season.
The emotions of the first meeting between the two teams — an 84-71 Lobos win at Moby Arena that featured a near brawl near the end of the game and a heated postgame argument in the parking lot afterward — seemed to carry over for the Rams, even if they didn’t want to admit it.
“It’s just another game,” Clavell said. “It’s basketball. It’s college basketball. It gets chippy, but that’s college basketball. We were excited to play this game because of the atmosphere. It’s the Pit . ... I don’t have nothing against them. They’re a great team and I think we’re going to see them again.”
Emmanuel Omogbo (17 points, 14 rebounds), the Rams senior who was involved in a shouting match with Lobo assistant Terrence Rencher after the first game, said Tuesday was just another game in the journey toward the MWC Tournament.
“(Our goal is) to get better each game and just try to prove ourselves to everybody, and like you guys,” Omogbo said. “... So you all can keep talking about us, good or bad, we don’t care.”
The Lobos, meanwhile, have work to do before hitting the road Saturday at Wyoming and hosting San Diego State March 4 for senior night.
“We’ll keep working and we’ll go back to the drawing board, but that was a perfect example of we couldn’t score and we couldn’t get to the line,” Neal said.