Missed chances haunt Lobos basketball in UTEP loss
EL PASO — The convergence of the first road game of the season and the first real defensive test proved to be too much for the University of New Mexico men’s basketball team Tuesday night in the Don Haskins Center.
The Lobos missed 11 free throws, turned the ball over 18 times and missed what felt like a couple dozen layups from point-blank range in a 66-63 loss to UTEP.
UNM (4-1) came in averaging 93 points a game but never did find the ejection handle on UTEP’s tenacious defense.
“We obviously left some — gosh, we left some points, I thought around the rim,” said New Mexico head coach Paul Weir. “We just couldn’t get the ball below the free throw line. They had us playing in the top half of the court there offensively.”
When they Lobos finally figured out how to penetrate that imaginary zone, missed bunnies by Carlton Bragg and Corey Manigault were costly. The two UNM big men were a combined
4 for 13 from the field and had 15 points between them.
“You have to credit UTEP,” Weir said. “They’ve got a lot of size around there, they bother shots and hopefully it has a little bit more to do with them as opposed to some inherent weakness we have that, you know, those aren’t going to go down.”
Trailing 10-1 immediately out of the opening tip, the Lobos battled back to take the lead multiple times, the last on an electrifying baseline drive and dunk by Zane Martin with 53 seconds left. The bucket gave the Lobos a 63-62 lead, but the Miners (4-0) answered right
back on a Jordan Lathon long-range jumper near the top of the key with 27 seconds left.
“It was a high-ball screen and I saw they had the five-man [Manigault] on me and I just got to my spot,” Lathon said.
It was a shot, Weir said, that he wanted Lathon to take — so long as he wasn’t moving to his right, which he was.
The Lobos had one last chance to take the lead but a flustered offensive possession led to a hurried 3-point shot by Makuach Maluach. For much of that play, and basically much of the game, the Miners’ defense was focused on double-teaming JaQuan Lyle. The senior guard finished with a game-high 19 points but he missed five of his 15 free throw attempts and was just 4-for-12 shooting with four turnovers.
After UTEP’s Bryson Williams hit a pair of clutch free throws with 1.1 seconds left, Lyle took an inbounds pass from Martin and sank a wild 3-point shot from 40 feet. It didn’t count as video replays clearly showed he still had the ball in his right hand as the time ran out.
Three players finished in double figures for the Lobos but, once again, Vance Jackson was largely a nonfactor. The 6-foot-9 junior took just five shots and played only 22 minutes. He was held to four points, three of which came on what looked like a game-changing 3-pointer to give UNM a 53-52 lead with 6:37 left. He didn’t score again from that point on.
Weir said part of UNM’s issues handling the ball and avoiding mistakes is the injection of newcomers Lyle, Martin and JJ Caldwell into the lineup as the point guards. Basically, he said, it’s just an adjustment everyone has to make; Jackson included.
“We’ve all got to find a way to maneuver it and understand each other more and what our sweet spots are,” he said. “We are a finished product by no means.”
NOTES
UTEP’s student section had some fun with Weir’s familiar red sweater ensemble, chanting, “Mr. Rogers, Mr. Rogers,” at him when he strolled over to the bench before the opening tip. … The Lobos stayed overnight in El Paso on Tuesday and will do so again Wednesday, returning home after Thursday’s game at NMSU. They’ll fly to New York City this weekend to start play in the championship rounds of the Legends Classic at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. They’ll face nationally ranked Auburn on Monday night. … UNM was 20 for
31 at the free throw line. For games in The Pit, the giant video board at the top of the arena but in a shooter’s direct line of sight behind each basket is blackened out when a player steps to the free throw line. Not so at the Haskins Center. During the game’s final eight minutes, a glowing red Chick-fil-A advertisement is shown on the screen reminding fans that everyone in the arena gets free food if an opposing player misses two straight shots from the stripe. Alas, that didn’t happen Tuesday.
WOMEN’S GAME
Five Lobos finished in double figures, led by Jordan Hosey’s 19 points and 13 rebounds as New Mexico (5-0) remained perfect with a 93-78 win earlier Tuesday at the Haskins Center.
More than half the team’s points came from the bench, led by Bride KennedyHopoate’s 17, Shaiquel McGruder’s 13 and Jaedyn De La Cerda’s 12.
The Lobos took control late in the first quarter, using a 16-1 run to open a 35-19 lead off an Ahlise Hurst 3-pointer three minutes into the second quarter. The margin grew to as many as 21 in the second half.
The win completes a sweep of the New Mexico State-UTEP road swing, sending the Lobos off to the Cancun Challenge to face Missouri (1-3) on Thanksgiving Day and nationally ranked West Virginia (3-0) the following afternoon.