LOBOS IN A LAUGHER
UNM crushes Northern NM by 49 points >>
The Lobos get to sleep in after Saturday night’s 115-66 exhibition game win in over NAIA’s Northern New Mexico College in Dreamstyle Arena.
At halftime, catching some extra Zs wasn’t looking like it was going to be in the cards for Paul Weir’s team.
The second-year University of New Mexico men’s basketball coach had seen enough in the past few weeks of his team not defending. The Lobos hadn’t been doing it well in practice. They didn’t do it well in an Oct. 27 closed-door scrimmage against Northern Arizona. They didn’t do it well Tuesday night in a season-opening road win at Cal State-Northridge.
So while the Lobos enjoyed a lopsided 63-44 halftime lead over the Eagles in front of an announced crowd of 10,810 in the Pit, there was one very important person who wasn’t happy the NAIA school from Española had shot 47.2 percent in the opening 20 minutes of the game, including hitting four 3-pointers.
So what was the halftime talk about for the Lobos?
“If we didn’t start playing defense, we were going to have to have practice at 5 a.m. (today),”
said Lobos senior Anthony Mathis. “If they scored more than a certain amount of points, we had to practice at 5 a.m.”
Added sophomore forward Vance Jackson about the halftime challenge, “We was not trying to wake up at 4 a.m. to go to practice.”
The Lobos responded by opening the second half on a 16-0 scoring run that ended with a Bryce Simmons bucket in the paint with 13:26 left in the game. The Lobos led 79-46 at that point and had forced the Eagles in the first 6 minutes, 34 seconds of the second half to go 0-for-7 from the field and commit seven turnovers.
Mission accomplished. The Lobos held NNMC to 22 second half points on 36.8 percent shooting and forced 26 turnovers overall in the game.
More important to the Lobo players, there was no early Sunday morning practice scheduled. But it didn’t exactly thrill Weir that it took such a halftime speech to get that out of his team.
“We challenged them at halftime pretty good,” Weir said. “This is the way our defense has looked for five straight halves — two in the scrimmage (Oct. 27 vs. Northern Arizona), two at Northridge (Tuesday’s season opener) and one here. Enough is enough, you know. Good to see us respond in the second half and good to see us understand some of the things we’re trying to do — either taking those things more serious or understanding the consequences for what those are.”
Eleven Lobos saw court time on Saturday night, including five scoring in double figures. UNM shot 63.6 percent from the floor (35-of55), including 15-of-27 (55.6 percent) from 3-point range.
Mathis led the offensive onslaught with 25 points, including perfect shooting from the free throw line (10-of-10) and 3-point line (5-of-5). He added five assists.
But Saturday had plenty of stat sheet stuffers for UNM.
Jackson had eight points, 10 rebounds and a game-high six assists. Vladimir Pinchuk had 15 points, two blocks and drew seven fouls. Point guard Keith McGee had 19 points and three steals. Corey Manigault added 19 points and six rebounds.
NNMC had three players score in double figures, led by 12 from Makye Richards.
DRINNON: Freshman point guard Drue Drinnon suited up on Saturday but did not play and has been nursing a sprained ankle since the Oct. 27 scrimmage.
“We warmed him up and if it went well in warmups, we were going to play him,” Weir said. “He didn’t feel quite 100 percent ready to go. We talked to the trainer and (Drinnon) was technically cleared to give it a shot. So we were hopeful maybe he’d even give it a few possessions, but he didn’t quite feel comfortable enough.”
Weir said he is hopeful Drinnon plays Tuesday against Iona.