Shallow bench no obstacle in Lobos’ domination of San Jose State
ALBUQUERQUE — The closer Mike Mondragon sits to the scoring table’s side of the bench, the worse things are for The University of New Mexico men’s basketball team.
Mondragon is a walk-on and, as a matter of principle, walk-ons sit closer to the locker room than the part where the coach turns to when looking for subs.
A 6-foot-3 junior from Taos by way of Albuquerque’s Highland High, Mondragon is only on this year’s team to fill out the Lobos’ depleted roster and provide another warm body during practice. Generally speaking, if he plays, the Lobos are either blowing someone out or getting it handed to them by someone else.
On Saturday night against San Jose State, Mondragon was only four spots from head coach Paul Weir. UNM dressed only eight players, as regular starters Sam Logwood (injury) and Troy Simons (suspension) were not available. Didn’t matter. Not even a little bit. The Lobos got double-digit scoring from five players and rolled to an 80-47 rout of the Spartans before 10,799 in The Pit. The win keeps them near the middle of the pack in the Mountain West Conference race. At 7-10 overall and 2-2 in league play, they are one of eight teams within two games of unbeaten league leader Nevada.
Freshman Makuach Maluach led UNM with 15 points. He hit 6 of 9 shots and logged 23 minutes — just shy of his career high for time played. He said afterward that the months of conditioning the players have been subjected to by Weir and his staff make nights like Saturday palatable.
“It’s just a mental thing,” he said. “If you really want it then you are going to get your time.”
The eight scholarship players on hand all played at least 19 minutes. The ninth Lobo was Mondragon, who checked into the game with 2:04 left and wound up getting an assist and hitting a layup off a drive-and-dish from Chris McNeal.
“He works really hard,” said Lobos senior Joe Furstinger of Mondragon’s impact. “He takes everything seriously, so I’m really happy for him.”
The game got out of hand early as UNM opened a double-digit lead early and led by as many as 35 in the second half.
San Jose State game into the game dead
last in the MWC standings and played exactly like a last-place team should. The Spartans (3-12, 0-4) had more turnovers (20) than made field goals (14), which led to a laughable 28-1 edge in points off turnovers for the Lobos.
“All we’ve talked about for the past few days is toughness,” Weir said. “Just getting tougher and more physical and stop being soft. I thought we’ve been soft at times here lately and the guys really responded.”
The Lobos even got some production out of freshman power forward Vladimir Pinchuk. He had gone three straight games without attempting a single shot but wound up with six points and five rebounds in 21 minutes. He and Furstinger (10 points, nine rebounds) more than held their own against a taller, deeper SJSU front line that never seemed to find any space to do any damage against the New Mexico defense.
Furstinger was one rebound short of his fifth double-double in six games. He even hit his second 3-pointer (and third of his career) late in the second half to give him 10 points for the game.
McNeal and Anthony Mathis — who was making just the second start of his career — had 12 points apiece while Antino Jackson had 11 with a game-high seven assists.
With so little depth, foul problems were a constant concern. Jackson and Mathis each picked up their fourth before the midway point of the second half. It was punctuated by a hard fall by Pinchuk just a few minutes earlier when he was fouled by SJSU’s Ashtin Chastain and fell flat onto his back under the rim.
He managed to stay in the game, but it underscored the lack of available bodies.
Enter Mondragon, a player Furstinger said is a valuable asset in doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes.
“He’s not 6-8, 6-9, but strong and he can hold his own with anybody,” Furstinger said.
GAME NOTES
Up next: The Lobos will remain at home to face Wyoming on Wednesday in The Pit. The Cowboys (11-5, 2-1) did the rest of the league a big favor by rallying from 16 points down at halftime to hand Boise State (13-3, 3-1) its first loss with a one-point victory in overtime.
Kangaroo court: Blocked shots have been an issue with the Lobos all season, particularly with their jump shooters around the perimeter. Weir tried to fix the issue by fining the players $2 for every time they had a shot rejected.
He told the media about it after Saturday’s game, but realized almost immediately that someone was probably out there listening to his comments and ready to blow them out of proportion.
“I don’t even know if I’m legally allowed to collect and I haven’t quite figured that out,” he said. “I’ve told them it’s going to charity to cover myself and how someone’s probably going to turn this in and I’m going to be in someone’s office tomorrow.”