LOBOS STUMBLE
New Mexico loses in ove overtime to San Diego State
SAN DIEGO — If there were any space at all between the black baseline of Steve Fisher Court and the bottom of Xavier Adams right sneaker, you might find the crushed hopes of the New Mexico Lobos.
The truth is, however, there wasn’t even enough space there to slide in the one page statement sent out late Saturday night by the league office acknowledging a blown call. It likely cost the Lobos an opportunity to not only beat first place San Diego State on its home court and keep UNM’s title hopes alive, but end what has now become a mind-bog- gling 161-game Aztecs winning streak when leading with 5 minutes left in regulation.
Instead, with the aid of a blown split-second judgment call but also numerous clutch plays down the stretch, the SDSU Aztecs found another way to win a close league game, dispatching the Lobos 78-71 in overtime and put a stranglehold on the league standings at 11-0. The second-place Lobos fall to 7-3.
A UNM victory, with the Aztecs still owing a game in the Pit on March 1, would have kept the Lobos’ title chances — at least for a co-championship — in their own hands. Now, they and the rest of the league will need a lot of help to catch the Aztecs.
“It’s my fault,” UNM coach Craig Neal said. “It’s my fault that my team didn’t execute down the stretch. I’ll take it on me. I thought we had a great inbounds play (with 12.9 seconds remaining in regulation and UNM up 66-63). There was a call that was made. Right or wrong, if it’s close, you can’t make that call. I’ll just say that.” UNM led by five before SDSU’s Winston Shepard
hit a layup with 12.9 seconds remaining to cut the lead to 3, setting up the much-talked about inbounds play. After the erroneous turnover call, SDSU tied the game on a Malik Pope 3-pointer, forced overtime and closed the extra period on a 10-0 scoring run for the win.
But the call in question was this: The Lobos tried to inbounds the ball against SDSU’s high-pressure fullcourt press using a play it had practiced numerous times this season and even used in a handful of games. It is designed to create space to get the ball in the hands of Cullen Neal, who starts the play out of bounds with the ball. When Neal passed to Xavier Adams along the baseline, Neal raced upcourt was expected to be open.
But referee Randy McCall determined Adams’ right foot had not touched out of bounds before catching Cullen Neal’s pass, leading to the turnover. Video replay showed McCall was wrong, as the league office indicated in its press release, and despite social media chatter and the talk from the CBS Sports Network commentators during the broadcast, two feet touching down was not a requirement of Adams.
“The referees told me that the player had not established himself out of bounds when touching the ball,” SDSU coach Steve Fisher said. “I didn’t bother to ask more on that one.”
Neal said “(The referee) said (Adams) was in the air when he caught the ball, but he wasn’t in the air.” The play cannot be reviewed. Had UNM (14-9 overall) not turned the ball over in that spot, odds are good it would have at least gone to the free throw line at the other end of the court. And even if it didn’t make either free throw, SDSU would have had to go the length of the floor for its game-tying 3-pointer instead of taking the ball out under its own basket.
Nevertheless, UNM had its chances beyond that one moment, including leaving Pope, who was just 12-of-51 from 3-point range this season until tying the game with 6.6 seconds left in the second half, wide open at the top of the key.
“I looked at him (Adams, the UNM defender who was late to close out on Pope’s shot), and thought, ‘ Man. That’s kind of disrespectful,” Pope said of being left so wide open on a play clearly drawn up for SDSU guard Trey Kell, who was defended well by the Lobos.
UNM power forward Tim Williams, who had 21 points and seven rebounds against the strong, physical front line of the Aztecs, said the Pope shot going in hurt, but didn’t deflate the Lobos entirely.
“It was a heart breaker,” Williams said. “I was trying to block out (Skylar) Spencer, so I didn’t exactly see who even shot the ball. I just saw the ball go through the net. I was like, man. ‘We’ve got to get them in overtime.’”
In the extra period, UNM went up 71-68 with 2:10 left on a Neal free throw before the Aztecs closed out on a 10-0 run, four from the free throw line in the final 17 seconds.
Elijah Brown had 23 points to lead UNM, but he (4-of-20) and Cullen Neal (3-of-12) gave the Lobos’ starting backcourt a combined shooting night of 7-of-32.
The Lobos had just 10 turnovers, including only two in the second half. Unfortunately for UNM, those were the much-debated inbounds play and Cullen Neal stepping out of bounds while being trapped with 17 seconds remaining in overtime.
Three Aztecs scored in dou- ble figures, led by freshman guard Jeremy Hemsley’s 23, which included 10-of-10 at the foul line.