Boise State gives UNM 2nd straight pounding
Weir: ‘We weren’t ready for this kind of game’
In his postgame media conference from Boise late Wednesday night, Paul Weir summed up what two backto-back national television audiences already knew from the UNM Lobos’ two games this week.
“We weren’t ready for this kind of a game,” he said.
That’s wasn’t in question after Wednesday’s 89-52 drubbing inside Boise’s State’s ExtraMile Arena — a loss that coupled with Monday’s 24-point beating made for a 61-point differential to open Mountain West play.
The question the Lobos (3-2, 0-2 Mountain West) have to try to find an answer to now is whether the 61-point differential this week was more a sign of their circumstances — a team that started regular practices only one month ago after being forced out of its home state just to get the opportunity to play — or a signal of a team that simply can’t compete with the league’s top-tier teams.
“That’s a good question,” Weir said Wednesday night. “I just told the guys, we have no other choice. This is it. So, we’ve got to go back to work. We’ve got to get ready for the next game. We have to enjoy, or at least embrace the process as best as we possibly can. And because these two games didn’t go the way anybody would have hoped or expected that doesn’t mean that the whole world is falling apart. That doesn’t mean this thing is over. We go back to work and we just see where it goes.
“I don’t have a sexy, sweet answer or solution to this other than we get back on that bus, and we go back to work and just see where this season
takes us.”
The Lobos first fly back to Albqueruque on Thursday, where they we be in a statemandated travel quarantine for a couple days before they get back on a bus to drive back to West Texas over the weeked where they hope to get some gym time to practice at either South Plains College in Levelland or at Lubbock Christian University, where they will host the Nevada Wolf Pack and former Lobos head coach Steve Alford in their Dec. 31 “home” game.
As for Wednesday, Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year Derrick Alston followed a 20-point, six rebound game on Monday with a dominating 22-point, six asssist game on Wednesday that including three highlight reel dunks, a 9-of-9 shooting performance and three 3-pointers. Max Rice, the son of Boise State coach Leon Rice, had a career-high 22 off the bench and hit four 3-pointers.
Boise State shot 60.0% from the field (36of-60) and 50.0% from 3-point range (11-of22), had 21 fast break points to just one (a free throw) for UNM, out-rebounded the Lobos 36-26 and scored 24 points off 18 turnovers.
UNM managed just three assists and didn’t have a player score in double figures on a night it shot 33.3% from the floor and hit 1-of-9 (11.1%) of its 3s.
The assist to turnover ratio was something Weir said was acually a point of emphasis from Game 1 to Game 2.
“Unfortunately we came out and took an incredibly big step backwards in that regard to go to three assists and 18 turnovers,” Weir said.
Leading scorer Makuach Maluach was one of three Lobos with a team-high eight points, but was the focal point of a Boise State defense that held him to 2-of-10 shooting and forced him into six turnovers.
The Lobos led 5-2 in the opening minutes, all points off offensive rebounds, but Boise State used a 10-0 run and later a 12-0 run to open up a 30-10 lead midway through the opening half and led 52-28 at the break with the Lobos already clearly out of the game.