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UNM Men's Basketball: Lobos Lose Grip in 60-51 Loss to No. 15 Air Force
New Mexico, which shot 32 percent from the field, couldn't hold on to four-point halftime lead.
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If resurgence was coming for the University of New Mexico this season, this might have been the last chance to make a splash.
The Lobos squandered that chance, losing 60-51 on Saturday to No. 15 Air Force in The Pit.
An announced crowd of 15,018 came out to watch a Lobos team that had won two in a row, including the first road win of the season against Colorado State.
All the makings of a great Pit game crumbled to disappointment as the Falcons (21-4, 8-3 in Mountain West Conference) outscored the Lobos 22-13 in the final 7:01.
With six games left in conference play, the Lobos sit at 3-7, 14-11 overall. Left on the schedule are road games against Brigham Young, which has won 28 straight at the Marriott Center, on Wednesday, and Utah, which hasn't allowed a Lobos win in Salt Lake City since 1989, on Feb. 23.
Duplicating Saturday's offensive performance in the future won't help the Lobos, who shot 32 percent from the field.
"We just gave up a must-win game," forward Daniel Faris said. "Now, every game we must win from here on out. We have to find a way."
The drama continues for a UNM lineup that saw forward Aaron Johnson and guards Jamaal Smith and J.R. Giddens -- all hyped in the preseason as the key pieces to what was supposed to be a triumphant season -- disappear against the Falcons.
Giddens, who led the team with 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting, didn't play in the closing 3:28, when UNM was down 48-43. Coach Ritchie McKay said he "wanted to play a lineup I thought would give us the best chance to contain the bounce."
Smith, who didn't play last Saturday against CSU because of a one-game suspension for fighting a Wyoming player, finished with four minutes and three points. Smith looked right at McKay when he hit a 3-pointer in the final minute, visibly upset with his playing time.
Johnson scored one point with five rebounds in nine minutes.
"We definitely need those guys to play well," said guard Darren Prentice, who played the best all-around game for UNM with eight points and career highs with seven assists and six rebounds. "Getting them back in the flow, hopefully we can come back for this six-game stretch."
Air Force guard Tim Anderson said the Falcons didn't worry about who was in the Lobos lineup. They kept chipping away at the team's four-point halftime deficit -- and eventually made their own advantage.
The four-point tag team by forwards Jacob Burtschi and Nick Welch -- Burtschi scoring on a layup with the foul, Welch tipping in Burtschi's missed free throw -- sealed the game at 52-45 with 2:36 left. It was too late by the time Prentice and Smith hit 3-pointers in the final minute.
Anderson, who finished with 17 points, punctuated that 9-2 run with two free throws.
Three Falcons finished in double figures, including Burtschi with 15 points and guard Dan Nwaelele with 17.
Not a bad finish for a team that started the game 1-of-10 from the field and 7-of-24 (29 percent) in the first half.
"We knew in the first half, down by four, we knew we could play better," AFA coach Jeff Bzdelik said. "We just need to be Air Force, that's what we wanted to do. That's disciplined on offense, we knew (UNM) liked to switch, so we tried to exploit switches. We knew if we went further into the shot clock and ran our cuts hard, we knew mismatches would surface."
UNM's Tony Danridge, the hero against CSU with 24 points, finished with eight points on 4-of-11 shooting.
Bzdelik said he wanted the Falcons to contest a team that "thrives off perimeter shots." The Falcons did this successfully, holding UNM to 7-of-23 (30 percent) from the 3-point line. Simply put, McKay said the Falcons executed better in the final six minutes.
"We went off on our own a little bit," McKay said. "I don't think we were working for the same shots . Defensively, we can't tell them more than we told them. They are going to drive the basketball. They drove it every time, we for some reason couldn't contain it. "
The loss deflates the momentum built from the previous two wins, McKay said.
"You have a chance to beat the (15th-ranked team) in the country on your home floor, you're playing well for 30 some odd minutes, the crowd's in the game. We didn't execute. That's what elite teams do, especially in February, they execute."
