New Mexico takes do Wyoming in The
UNM has only 8 players, and coach heaps praise in win over Wyoming
ALBUQUERQUE — If you put pen to paper and drew up a scenario where a basketball team’s leading scorer and its most physical guard were taken out of the lineup, and all you had left were eight supporting cast members, it would seem to reason that nothing good comes from it.
Enter the Lobos, a rudderless ship that somehow seems to have settled into an inexplicable groove of smooth sailing.
“It’s unbelievable,” said University of New Mexico men’s basketball coach Paul Weir after his team’s 75-66 win Wednesday night over Wyoming in The Pit. “These guys, they defied logic. I-I-I, I have yet — I don’t want to get too emotional or too prideful or whatever — this is as amazing of a group as I’ve ever been around.”
For the second straight game, the shorthanded Lobos (8-10, 3-2) suited up just eight players, and for the second straight time, they
walked out of the building with a Mountain West Conference win. Only five of the eight scored and four of them did most of the heavy lifting in winning a game that catapults UNM into a tie for fourth place and just a game out of second.
The Lobos allowed Wyoming (11-6, 2-2) just four offensive rebounds. Despite turning the ball over 20 times and getting a halftime riot act read to them by Weir — most of it directed at point guard Antino Jackson — they somehow dominated the second half and rolled to what Weir said was the best win of the season.
Behind it all was Jackson, a diminutive 6-foot senior transfer who finished with 20 points, four assists and four steals. He had three turnovers in 14 minutes in the first half. He had none in the same amount of time the rest of the way.
He said Weir’s tough love in the form of a rough halftime tirade only pushed him to improve.
“He just, like, came at me in a type of way that I could respond in a horrible way,” Jackson said. “You know, I just sat back and, like, he just keeps on getting me better because he keeps on challenging me, like, are you going to give in? Honestly, I really praise coach on my second half effort because he really got me going.”
The pendulum swung dramatically in the first half, showing fans just how good — and how bad — the Lobos can be all in the span of about 10 minutes.
The good? A 9-2 run opened a 16-11 lead early on. The Lobos got a pair of 3-pointers from Jackson and one from Anthony Mathis, plus two offensive rebounds from Makuach Maluach, a block from Vladimir Pinchuk and a one-on-one race down the floor for a loose ball in which Dane Kuiper dove head first out of bounds trying to get a steal from Wyoming’s Hunter Maldonado.
Then there was the bad. The Lobos turned it over like it was their job in the first half, including five in a brutal four-minute span late in the half in which they went more than six minutes without a field goal. Several times they had the shot clock tick down to the final seconds, forcing a hurried shot that produced one empty possession after another.
They somehow managed to stick close, trailing 32-27 at the break.
“Really, that first 20 minutes was about as bad a 20 minutes as we could have played,” Weir said.
Jackson was that catalyst coming out of the locker room. He hit consecutive 3-pointers, setting the stage for an 11-0 run out of the gate. Wyoming never led again. The margin grew to nine, then 12. Maluach had yet another breakout game, his second straight in the absence of forward Sam Logwood and guard Troy Simons. The pair sat out for last weekend’s win against San Jose State in which Maluach scored 15 points and they were in street clothes yet again as the true freshman had 17 points and five rebounds.
Also with 17 was Joe Furstinger. His 10 rebounds (all at the defensive end) gave him his fifth double-double in the last seven games.
“Joe’s done an unbelievable job cleaning up the glass at the defensive end,” Weir said. “He’s really shown an ability which we haven’t had this year of a guy who can just go and get a ball. Even if we miss a boxout, even if we aren’t perfect, we really haven’t had this year that just goes and gets the ball anyways and cleans up other people’s mistakes.”
Anthony Mathis came off the bench to score 16 points. He hit three of the Lobos’ 10 3-pointers and was one of the people assigned to shadow Wyoming guard Justin James. A preseason all-MWC selection, James had a game-high 31 points, but no other Cowboy had more than 10.
The only other Lobo to score was Chris McNeal with five points. Forwards Dane Kuiper and Jachai Simmons played a combined 43 minutes and attempted only three shots without scoring. Freshman center Pinchuk had just two rebounds and no points in 14 minutes.
Afterward, Weir said it’s not the points or the stats he’s looking for. What he wants is something the eight players he has are giving that Logwood and Simons just aren’t.
“I think this team is finally starting to buy into and see that you can win with emotion and you can win with passion, you can win with toughness, you can win with work ethic,” he said. “The eight guys I have have really embraced that. The guys that aren’t in that eight maybe haven’t quite figured that out yet. But these eight have realized, you know what, we have to defend, we have to be tough, and we just have to want it more than who we play and that’s why these guys have gotten two really good back-to-back wins for us.”
GAME NOTES
Weir offered no updates on when, or if, Logwood and Simons would return. Logwood missed the SJSU game with an injured shoulder but was without a sling for Wednesday’s game. Simons served a one-game suspension against SJSU but was eligible against Wyoming. Weir chose to have him sit out. … Just 9,846 attended the game, the smallest crowd yet since the MWC schedule began. … The Lobos were 10-for-24 from 3-point range and 13-for-26 inside the arc. The lack of rebounding on Wyoming’s end produced just two second-chance points for the Cowboys, a season-low for a UNM opponent. … Wyoming coach Allen Edwards was called for a technical foul midway through the second half, his first of the season. … The Lobos had six blocked shots. Furstinger and Pinchuk had two apiece, all in the second half.
Antino Jackson said coach Paul Weir’s tough love in the form of a rough halftime tirade only pushed him to improve.