Lobos fall in New York
UNM is crushed by No. 18 Auburn at the Legends Classic in Brooklyn
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — If winning at New Mexico State last week was getting over the hump for the UNM Lobo basketball program, it found out Monday night in the Barclays Center the other side of the hump was the edge of a cliff.
The Lobos (5-2) looked outmanned and outcoached, and were just beat at their own up-tempo, high-pressure game in an 84-59 loss to No. 18 Auburn in a nationally televised semifinal game of the Legends Classic.
The Lobos, looking the part of a tired team that has been on the road all but one night in the past eight days, have less than 24 hours to wait until they get back on the court, as they play the Big Ten’s Wisconsin in the third-place game of the event Tuesday.
“I thought they had a lot of pop to them and, unfortunately, we looked the opposite,” said UNM coach Paul Weir. “We looked like a team that’s been on the road for the last week. Physically, they do have tremendous length and athleticism, but I just thought their overall pop was just better than ours and that, obviously, extenuated that difference.”
No objections from Auburn coach Bruce Pearl.
“I thought we physically were dominant,” Pearl said. “I thought our defense carried the day. I thought that we wore them down a little bit with our pressure and effort and energy. The pace of that game early was something else and we were able to get deeper into our bench.”
The Lobos led early thanks to Makuach Maluach, who had a team-high 14 points, including six of UNM’s first 14 points as the
Lobos jumped out to a 14-9 lead six and a half minutes into the game.
But then Auburn (6-0) went on a 16-0 run over a 7-minute, 10-second span that broke the game wide open and seemed to leave the Lobos in shock and playing timid and hesitant the rest of the game.
For a Lobos offense that is emphasizing trying to score in transition, it was apparent they had little shot of that on Monday and actually committed a high volume of their turnovers in transition.
UNM’s 24 turnovers led to 28 Auburn points and the Tigers hit 12-of-38 3-pointers (31.6%).
UNM had three players score in double figures — Maluach had 14, Keith McGee came off the bench for 13 impressive points down the stretch, and much-maligned Vance Jackson overcame a slow start to finish with 10 points and eight rebounds.
UNM leading scorer JaQuan Lyle, however, had his worst game in a Lobos uniform, shooting 1-for-10 with three turnovers with the team being outscored by 26 in the 25 minutes he was on the court. When he sat down with 1:19 left in the game, he did not return.
Weir said Lyle was sick.