No. 4 SDSU humiliates Lobos in The Pit
28-point loss to nation’s only undefeated team was fourth largest in arena’s 54-year history
ALBUQUERQUE — Not even the power of The Pit could save the Lobos from humiliation.
In a clear demonstration of how far a talented, postseason-caliber team has completely disintegrated in the last five weeks, the New Mexico men’s basketball team was handed one of its worst losses ever in its own building with a 85-57 blowout at the hands of fourth-ranked San Diego State.
Make no mistake, the Aztecs looked like a topfive team, hitting impossible shots and making plays that seemed almost unfair. Even at full strength the Lobos would have been fortunate to make it competitive. San Diego State scored the game’s first 17 points and held the Lobos scoreless for nearly five minutes.
By then the announced crowd of 13,241 — easily the largest of the season — was shocked into near silence. At no point was the game anywhere close to exciting as UNM had its 15-game home winning streak set on fire, making Wednesday’s 28-point margin the fourth-largest in the 54-year history of The Pit.
“That opening three minutes for San Diego State was the most impressive three minutes I’ve ever gone up against in my four years as a head coach,” said UNM’s Paul Weir.
Making matters worse was the stark, cold
realization that UNM simply had no chance given the players it had at its disposal. With all due respect to the players who pulled on the cherry uniforms Wednesday, they were no
match for a team that is clearly setting its sights on a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
“The building was electric and they were ready to explode, and so the best thing we did early was take the crowd out of the game,” said SDSU coach Brian Dutcher.
The Lobos, of course, have left an ocean of decimated teams in their wake in The Pit. From No. 1 Arizona and unbeaten Wyoming to a top-five Nevada team and dozens of ranked visitors, plenty of teams have been overwhelmed by the magic of UNM’s home.
Not tonight. Hard as they tried, the fans could never inject the life needed to make something out of nothing with the players Weir had at his disposal.
How bad was it? Walk-ons Jordan Arroyo and Clay Patterson each got valuable minutes, even taking the floor at the same time for brief spells in each half.
Arroyo grabbed a career-high seven rebounds in 21 minutes, getting the most playing time since he was a senior at Albuquerque’s Atrisco Heritage Academy.
At one point in the second half, the lineup out of a media timeout consisted of Arroyo, barely used scholarship freshmen Kurt Wegscheider and Emmanuel Kuac, sophomore Tavian Percy and junior guard Keith McGee.
Until injuries and suspensions wrecked UNM’s season, Percy and McGee were ninth and 10th on the team’s depth chart.
Familiar surnames like Bragg and Lyle, Jackson and Caldwell, are gone for good or in a holding pattern waiting to come back.
For Lobo fans desperate for a winner after five straight seasons of essentially .500 ball and dwindling attendance, this year was supposed to be theirs. The made-fromtransfers roster was loaded with talent, the team started 13-2 and a run at SDSU atop the Mountain West felt inevitable.
Now this.
“It was obviously a season that was on a really — it was a lot of fun,” Weir said. “And right now maybe isn’t as much fun. But I can’t really predict what’s going to happen in the future, exactly. All we do right now is work really hard, stay positive, stay together, play the guys that are here.”
Losing to one of the country’s best teams is one thing. Doing it with the smoldering remains of something that once held so much promise is quite another.
The Aztecs sensed the demise and pounced. And kept pouncing. And pounced some more. They kept their starters in the game until the final six minutes and ran a full-court press when (wink-wink) nursing a 70-37 lead with 11 minutes left.
“Road wins are the hardest thing in college basketball to get and this has been a hard place for us, obviously, because they have such great fan support and the building is electric,” Dutcher said.
But not on this night.
Not this season.
Not against this team.