Neal rips Lobos in loss to Wyoming
In final 6 minutes, UNM held to just one field goal; Wyoming nails 14 3-pointers
LARAMIE, Wyo. — The target keeps moving on the New Mexico Lobos.
Play solid defense and the offense stops scoring.
Finally put the ball in the basket and the perimeter defense collapses.
The Wyoming Cowboys drained 14 3-pointers and held UNM without a field goal during the last 5 minutes minute, 53 seconds to thwart a Lobos comeback attempt in a 82-71 Mountain West Conference win in the Arena-Auditorium.
The loss is the third in a row for the Lobos (16-13 overall, 9-8 MWC), who fell in the conference standings to fifth, a half-game ahead of San Diego State, which lost 56-55 to Colorado State on Saturday. The Lobos’ regular-season finale at home against San Diego State on March 4.
Wyoming (17-12, 7-9) evenly distributed its perimeter damage with seven triples in each half, but the three most crucial came in the final 4 minutes after the Lobos cut a 64-53 Cowboys lead to 69-67 when Elijah Brown hit two of three throws with 4:57 left. Those were the first tries from the line for the UNM junior wing since he hit two with 7:42 left in the first half against Fresno State — 2½ games ago.
It was a 70-68 score when Wyoming’s Justin James drilled a 3 with 3:58 left. Jason McManamen followed with consecutive 3s, including a 24-footer with UNM guard Anthony Mathis in his face that made it 78-68 with 2:52 left.
“Tonight, they made two big mental mistakes defensively,” UNM head coach Craig Neal said in a radio interview. “They gave them six points, and we came down in a big hurry and weren’t patient.”
New Mexico missed its last 11 shots from the field and made just 3 of 4 at the line.
Neal said his team has struggled with showing mental toughness in tight games, and it reared its head in the final moments of both halves against the Cowboys. In the first half, Wyoming used an 11-1 run in the last 3:20 to take a 38-31 lead at the break, and capped the game with a 12-3 spurt.
“They got to get out of this mental toughness thing and making plays at the end and doing some things where we make smart plays,” Neal said. “We’ve had many, many chances to get over the hump, and you’d think they learn.”
That flat finish took some of the luster off of inspired play from sophomores Connor MacDougall and Anthony Mathis, who played for the second time in the last 14 games.
Mathis scored seven points in six minutes in the first half, then hit back-to-back 3s which kick-started a 15-6 run that got the Lobos within two on Brown’s free throws. Mathis finished with 13 points.
MacDougall chipped in with five points during that spurt and finished with a seasonhigh 17 points in just 15 minutes of play.
Brown had just 10 points on 4-for-17 shooting while getting to the line just three times. Sam Logwood had 12 points and led the Lobos with 11 rebounds.
UNM overcame a rough start in which it fell behind 9-0 in the opening 4 minutes, before using a 10-2 run to cut the margin to 11-10 on a Logwood layup with 12:07 left.
A 6-0 spurt late in the first half gave the Lobos a 23-19 lead on Logwood’s jumper with 5:50 left, and they still led 30-27 on Damien Jefferson’s layup with 3:20 left in the half before Wyoming went on its run.
That, too, was highlighted by 3s as McManamen hit a pair and James hit one. James led the Cowboys with 22 points, and McManamen added 17 on the strengh of 4-for-9 shooting from 3-point range.
The Lobos’ season finale against the Aztecs becomes much more important because the winner gets the fifth and final bye for the opening day of the MWC Tournament on March 7.
Neal, though, felt UNM missed an opportunity to make life easier for itself heading into the final game of the season.
“You don’t want it to come down to that,” Neal said. “That’s not what you’re playing for.”