Brown, defense struggle in men’s 3rd straight loss
LARAMIE, Wyo. — Maybe the Lobos found their new inside-out, 1-2 punch.
The problem Saturday is it wasn’t Tim Williams (still injured) or Elijah Brown (still struggling) and the Lobos’ past defensive lapses on the perimeter returned to haunt them as the host Wyoming Cowboys hit 14 3-pointers in an 82-71 win, handing UNM its third consecutive loss.
“We’re trying to play as hard as we can,” Lobos coach Craig Neal said. “We’ve shown glimpses, but we just can’t get over the hump . ...
“We can’t give them that many points from the 3-point line. That’s 42 points. That’s what they do. This group has got to get a little more mentally tough, but they’re getting there. They’re working on it.”
UNM (16-13, 9-8 Mountain West), couldn’t have started Saturday’s game much worse. Wyoming (17-12, 7-9) jumped out to a 9-0 lead while
starters Obij Aget and Brown, the team’s leading scorer on the season, picked up two fouls apiece before the first media timeout four minutes into the game. That put both on the bench for much of the rest of the half.
In their absence, though, the Lobos rallied nicely. Sophomore shooting guard Anthony Mathis, playing for just the second time in the past 14 games, scored seven consecutive points in one stretch for UNM in a 23-10 run.
But Wyoming closed the half like the Cowboys started it, using an 11-1 run in the final three minutes to lead 38-31 at the break.
“We did nice to get the lead back and then they went on their little run,” Neal said. “That’s when we’ve got to be patient.”
In the second half, UNM backup forward Connor MacDougall scored 10 of his career-high 17 points (he was 9-of-12 at the free throw line), and Mathis finished with 13, including three 3-pointers. Their 30 points came in just 31 minutes on the floor.
Along with Sam Logwood’s double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds), it would seem UNM had enough offense to compete. UNM cut Wyoming’s second half lead to 69-67 with under five minutes to play.
“I thought we played really hard and cut it to a one-possession game. Then I thought we made two really bad mental mistakes defensively,” Neal said. “And instead of keeping our poise like we have in the past on the road, we came down and we tried to hit home runs . ... We were right there, but I’m happy with their effort.”
But, while the MacDougall/ Mathis/Logwood trio shot 59.1 percent (13-of-22) and scored 42 points, the rest of the UNM roster shot 29.3 percent (12-of-41) and scored just 29 points. And
nobody was consistent enough on defense to slow the Cowboys, who had four players score in double figures, led by 22 from Justin James.
Brown (10 points, six assists and 4-of-17 shooting, including 0-of-8 from 3-point range) was frustrated for the third consecutive game, and third consecutive Lobos loss, by an opposing team effectively managing to keep him off the free throw line. After averaging 7.8 free throw attempts per game through Feb. 14, he has shot six total in the past three Lobo losses.
First-year Wyoming coach Allen Edwards said the plan was to make Brown work as hard as he could on defense to wear him out, put long-armed defenders on him on the other end of the court, and “try to force somebody else to beat us other than him.” The Lobos didn’t.
TWEET: Late Friday, former UNM President Robert G. Frank tweeted, then quickly deleted, a congratulations to his son, Brian, who is a graduate assistant on the Dayton Flyers basketball team, with a biting remark about Lobo hoops to follow.
He wrote: “My son Brian’s Dayton Flyers are now 23-5 after beating Davidson at home, shame the Lobos can’t break 20 wins.”
PAST LOBOS: Past New Mexico greats Royce Olney and Hunter Greene were on hand for the game. Olney lives nearby in Colorado and Greene is the Lobos’ radio analyst.