PERFECT LOBOS
Lobos Break Out With 11 3-Pointers
UNM moves to 9-0 after beating Southern Cal 75-67
There weren’t many questions about playing a complete game, shooting woes or that dreadful word “sloppy” play.
No, the No. 18 New Mexico Lobos were all smiles after improving to 9-0 on the season with a 75-67 win over Southern California in front of 15,241 fans in the Pit on Wednesday night.
Point guard Hugh Greenwood tied a career high with five 3-pointers, center Alex Kirk had his third double-double of the season with 13 points and 13 rebounds, Kendall Williams dished out a season-high nine assists, and the Lobos shot 51.9 percent from the field in the nationally televised win.
“I thought our pace and our intensity tonight was even up a level,” UNM head coach Steve Alford said. “And maybe it was because we started making some
shots, I don’t know.”
The Lobos had averaged just 41.4 percent shooting this season entering Wednesday’s game against USC (3-5).
No Lobo player epitomized the shooting slump breakthrough more than Greenwood. After starting the season hitting just five of his first 25 3-pointers in the first seven games, the 6-foot-3 sophomore from Australia has now hit seven in his last two games, including two in overtime of Saturday’s win at Indiana State.
Alford and assistant coach Craig Neal joked that the change for Greenwood came in the final two minutes of the Indiana State win when an opposing player diving for a loose ball slammed Greenwood’s head into the floor of the court, making him feel dizzy and be forced to leave that game for the final play of regulation.
“It probably knocked some sense into me,” Greenwood said.
Whatever it was, his seasonhigh 17 points was the difference Wednesday. His fifth 3-pointer of the game went in with 17:25 left in the second half, pushing UNM’s lead to 50-38 and prompting chants of “Aussie, Aussie, Ausie! Oi, Oi, Oi!” from Lobos fans.
“I haven’t shot well all year, I think most people know that,” Greenwood said. “(But) I’ve still been confident.”
USC had the Lobos down 28-18 in the first half before Greenwood’s first 3-pointer of the game with 7:48 left in the first half started a 25-6 run to close out the half and take a 43-34 lead into the locker room. The 43 points was the most UNM has scored in the first half all season.
“They shot the daylights out of it the last seven minutes of the first half,” USC head coach Kevin O’Neill said. “... They do all the things you’re supposed to do as a good team.”
Alford agreed that the way his team closed out the first half, and started the second half on a 16-8 run putting the Lobos up by 17 with 13:40 left in the game, was the key stretch of the game.
“You’re down 10 and you end up going up nine at the half,” Alford said. “... We built it up to 17 (point lead). When you’re up 17 at home, there’s a lot of things that have to go wrong to get caught.”
USC did have an 13-2 scoring run late in the game that cut the Lobos lead to 70-65, a stretch that saw UNM go scoreless in eight-consecutive possessions and turn the ball over three times.
But a Kendall Williams 3-pointer with 1:52 left in the game seemed to be the final dagger in the Trojans’ heart.
UNM out-rebounded the Trojans, who boast three 7-foot players, 31-23, and had nine offensive rebounds. Alex Kirk was “the best big man on the floor,” Alford said, something O’Neill couldn’t disagree with.
“He’s a hell of a player,” the USC coach said.
Kirk added a career-high 36 minutes in the contest.
The Lobos host Valparaiso in the Pit at 7 p.m. Saturday.
TRIBUTE: Prior to Wednesday’s game, UNM played a brief video tribute to former Utah Utes head coach Rick Majerus, who passed away Saturday at the age of 64. The tribute included a postgame interview with Majerus from December 2011 when Majerus’ St. Louis Billikens lost to the Lobos in the Pit. Majerus was complimentary of the Lobos in that news conference, saying in his time as a rival at Utah he always thought UNM was the best job in the league.
TIME CHANGE: The Lobos Dec. 22 home game with South Dakota State has been moved up a half hour to a 12:30 p.m. start time. The previous start time was slated for 1 p.m.