LOBOS WINNERS
UNM ends its losing streak with a victory at home over Rice
He didn’t seem to like being Joe “Secondstringer.”
University of New Mexico senior Joe Furstinger, coming off the bench for the first time this season, had career highs in points and rebounds and posted his first college doubledouble, leading the Lobos past Rice, 78-69, on Tuesday night in Dreamstyle Arena, snapping a four-game losing streak.
The breakout game for the 6-foot-9 fiery leader of the Lobos on the court (who isn’t that fond of talking much off it), surely meant he was heading for a big night of celebrating, right?
“(I’ll) probably go to sleep,” said Furstinger, whose 17 points came on 6-of-8 shooting and his 12 rebounds included four on the offensive glass. “Maybe watch some TV.”
The announced crowd of 9,415 in the Pit celebrated his big night plenty.
The Lobos, who had five players score in double figures and got 62 points off the bench, improved to 4-8 on the season. Rice fell to 3-9.
UNM coach Paul Weir said the lineup changes were based on a simple formula: Players who grade out better defensively, specifically who get the most deflections the prior game, start the next game.
“I’m trying to find a way to emphasize defense as much as I possibly can,” said Weir. “Defense is important to me. Starting is important to them. So, if you play defense, you start. That’s just kind of how we’re doing it right now.”
For UNM, 6-10 freshman Vladimir Pinchuk had more deflections in the team’s Saturday loss to Arizona, so he got the start.
But Weir loved Tuesday’s response from Furstinger — “He played with a nice pep to him tonight,” Weir said. The
same was true of others who came off the bench after having started multiple games: Chris McNeal (12 points, 4-for-9 from 3-point range), Sam Logwood (15 points, nine rebounds, five offensive boards) and Troy Simons (15 points, four 3-pointers, three assists and four steals).
Furstinger checked into the game at 17:59 in the first half. He and Pinchuk usually sub in and out for each other in the first couple minutes of each game.
By the time he left the court just 3 minutes, 10 seconds later, Furstinger had already scored four points, grabbed four rebounds and dished out an assist.
“I just got into a flow,” said Furstinger. “They hit it down low and the other team’s guy was kind of smaller than me, so I just tried to overpower him.”
Rice’s frontline was a far cry from the pair of starting 7-footers, including projected NBA draft lottery pick Deandre Ayton, who Furstinger tried to battle in the Pit during Saturday night’s loss to No. 18 Arizona.
But the Lobos defense was still less than stellar in the first half, allowing Rice to shoot 53.3 percent (16-of-30), continuing a few troubling trends for the Lobo defense. The Owls were the sixth opponent in the past nine games to shoot 50 percent or better in the first half.
“We may not have the size or the overall talent to just overwhelm you at the beginning of a game,” Weir said. “We try and do it with our depth and our style of play and hope that over the course of the game we can do what we did tonight.”
Rice’s offense wore down, shooting 34.4 percent in the second half, but its zone defense kept them in it. The Owls even cut what was once a 12-point deficit to five with 5:23 remaining before the Lobos pulled away for the win.
“I hate talking about winning and losing,” Weir said. “It’s really just about the process and us playing well. But we flat out needed one . ...
“There’s not a lot of kids at 3-8 who would look at a firstyear coach and still buy in, but they’re still buying in and I’m thankful for that.”