Defense appears as Lobos snap losing streak
The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team shuts down visiting Evansville for a 78-59 victory.
So that’s what defense looks like. Playing a solid and steady brand of D that held visiting Evansville to one of its worst shooting performances of the season, The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team brought home its most impressive win of the Paul Weir era with a 78-59 victory over the Purple Aces on Wednesday night in The Pit.
It snapped a four-game skid that had been punctuated by shoddy defense, bad shooting and a distinct disadvantage on the glass.
The Lobos (3-4) did get outrebounded once again, but they shot nearly 50 percent from the floor and caused 10 more turnovers than they committed, turning a two-point lead early in the second half into a commanding 19-point edge in the final eight minutes.
Evansville led for only 43 seconds, and that was a 4-3 edge early on. UNM used a 9-0 run over a seven-minute span to take a lead it never coughed up.
New Mexico head coach Paul Weir chalked it up, in part, to a feisty team practice the day before the Purple Aces came to town.
“It was competitive, we had guys fighting, we had guys arguing, we had guys diving, getting hurt,” he said. “We got really competitive [Tuesday] in practice and we gotta keep our foot on the gas the rest of the way. That’s who we are. We’re not going to sit here and pretend we’re something we’re not.”
Who Weir wants the Lobos to be is a team built on energy, enthusiasm and all-out effort. Until help arrives next year in the form of incoming recruits to bolster the lineup, all the team has is what it generates itself.
“Losing, I think, really tests your resolve and your commitment to what you want to do and who you want to be,” Weir said. “I think it really tested our culture and what we want to do. I really felt over the last, whatever it’s been now, week and a half ? That our culture has been tested; how tough are we, how together are we, how are all the things that we say are we want to be and we’ve spent just as much time on that as we have trying to worry about X’s and O’s.”
Weir said he got back to basics with his players, not worrying about running specific plays as much as he was about placement of personnel in certain situations. It paid off in droves early on.
The Purple Aces went the entire first half without a 3-point bucket, the first time this season they’d gone a full half without making one. They came into the game as the third-rated 3-point shooting team in the country. The Lobos held them to 36.5 percent shooting for the game, including 3-for-13 from the outside.
Helping the Lobos’ cause was the play of three players who had been struggling of late. Troy Simons had a nice bounce-back game after some erratic play the last week-plus. He finished tied for game-high honors with Sam Logwood.
Each had 14 points as every Lobo who saw action got into the scoring column. Chris McNeal had 13 while Makuach Maluach and Anthony Mathis each had 10.
The Lobos were 30-for-61 from the floor, a drastic improvement over previous games where they struggled to produce with the ball in their hands.
Antino Jackson came off the bench to produce a game-high 10 assists despite not hitting a single shot. He had two points on a pair of free throws but assumed the role of point guard to perfection by protecting the ball. He had just one turnover in 18 minutes.
“Major growth for him tonight,” Weir said.
Evansville did crawl within 64-51 in the final five minutes, perhaps giving some Lobo fans flashbacks to last year’s monumental collapse to Nevada. The UNM defense came to the rescue, forcing two turnover and a handful of missed shots as the margin grew to 22 inside of three minutes.
The Purple Aces turned it over 21 times, easily a season high for them. It all went back to defensive intensity, Weir said.
To that end, he credited the renewed commitment he has gotten in practice this week. The Lobos had gotten away from two-a-day workouts, ditching morning practices in favor of a scaled-down afternoon workout. They’re back in the gym in the mornings now.
“We work on our culture every day because that’s what we’re going to build this thing on,” Weir said. “Not only this program, but this season. That’s, I think, what’s carried us through these past couple of weeks.”
Toss in a little D and a consistent brand of shooting, and the Lobos appear to be onto something.
GAME NOTES
Lobos guard Dane Kuiper made two of his first three shot attempts and finished with six points. He had been in a prolonged slump since the first game of the season. He did, however, miss his final three shots Wednesday night. … Evansville had a 39-30 edge in rebounding, including a 15-9 advantage at the offensive end. The Purple Aces outscored UNM 18-8 on secondchance opportunities. … The paid attendance was just 8,943. The season high was 10,695 against Northern New Mexico College.