Associated Press/Lenny Ignelz

Roman Martinez (left) and the Lobos got revenge for an earlier loss to San Diego State on Wednesday. Now they're looking for the same tonight against TCU. "It's payback week for us," said UNM head coach Steve Alford. "It's been labeled that throughout our team. We're 50 percent done."

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The Lobos don't call it revenge. They call it payback. But we get the picture. We sense the wound.

The University of New Mexico Lobos still carry the pain and anger that came from blowing a 18-point second-half lead to the TCU Horned Frogs in Fort Worth.

And from letting ex-Lobo Ryan Wall inflict the final blow with a 3-pointer from the left baseline with 1.5 seconds to play.

"Maybe payback and revenge are similar words," said Lobos coach Steve Alford. "It's payback week for us. It's been labeled that throughout our team.

"We're 50 percent done."

The first half of the payback came 73-63 Wednesday at San Diego State when UNM got even for allowing the Aztecs to rally for a 72-67 win in The Pit.

That road win has to go down as the tougher half of payback week. The Horned Frogs have lost five of their past six games and are limping into The Pit off a 72-54 pounding at Wyoming.

"I hope they don't figure (things) out in the next 48 hours," said Alford. "They can figure it out on Monday."

The Horned Frogs look like road kill waiting for a big foot to come down on them.

And UNM's J.R. Giddens has been stomping down on Mountain West Conference teams for several weeks now.

He scored 22 at San Diego, 36 in The Pit against Wyoming and 19 in The Pit against Colorado State.

But the Lobos senior has been killing opponents all the way across the stat columns and also with his solid defense.

A win tonight against TCU would raise the Lobos to 20-6 and 7-4 in MWC play.

"(Tonight) can get us to 20 wins, which is always a landmark number," said Alford. "It also gets us to 7-4 in the league and to be 7-4 in the league with five games remaining really puts you in a situation where, at least in the last two to three weeks, your games are extremely meaningful."

The Lobos might already be at 20 wins and sitting 7-3 in league play had it not been for a controversial/bad call by referee David Hall at TCU.

The Frogs called for a timeout shortly before Wall's 3-point bomb and Hall looked at the TCU bench and awarded the Frogs time. But TCU did not have a timeout left and should have been slapped with a technical foul.

Hall suddenly, and gutlessly, changed the TCU timeout into an injury timeout given to a downed Frog. Hall has not yet shown the integrity to publicly admit his mistake.

"Those are the things that end up making a difference," said Alford. "It was a tough break for us.

"The thing I'm most proud, most pleased with, our young men have moved on. They have not allowed that game and that tough break to effect what they are doing in the league race."

Alford said the TCU game has been in the back of all Lobos' minds because of the way UNM played down the stretch - badly. TCU shot 76 percent in the second half.

"I got in the locker room (after the SDSU win) and that's all the guys were talking about," said Alford. "That's the one that has stung the most all year.

"You never like losing, but that one we gave away. We had them beat and we gave it to them and we'll be very excited to get this thing going (tonight)."