The big Ute went to the bench. The little Lobo took over.

New Mexico's Jamaal Smith, the smallest of all the Lobos, scored five points and had three rebounds in the final 50 seconds of overtime to propel the University of New Mexico to a 77-67 Mountain West Conference win over the Utah Utes Tuesday night in The Pit.

The Utes were crippled in overtime when their 7-foot-1 center, Luke Nevill, went to the bench with five fouls 20 seconds into the five-minute overtime period.

Nevill left the game after UNM fed the ball inside to 6-9 junior center Daniel Faris. Faris pump faked Nevill off his feet, leaped into the contact, threw up a shot and celebrated as the ball rolled into the hole to give the Lobos a 62-60 lead at the 4:40 mark.

Utah tied the score twice in overtime at 62-all and 64-all, but UNM scored six unanswered points to claim a 70-64 lead with 1:24 to go. Utah's Luke Drca hit a 3-pointer at 1:11 to cut the UNM lead to 70-67.

Smith then scored five of UNM's final seven points and pulled down three rebounds in the final 50 seconds. The Lobos also went seven-of-seven from the free throw line in the final 1:24.

The win pushes UNM's record to 16-4 and 3-2 in league. Utah falls to 10-7 and 1-3.

Smith's basket with 48 seconds to play put the Lobos up 72-67 and he added a free throw to make it 73-67. That basket was as much strength as anything else as Smith drove the lane, put a spin move on his defender and was fouled. Smith hung in the air for an extra second before pushing the ball at the basket. It rolled in. The 5-foot-9 Smith made the free throw.

Smith then hauled down a rebound on a miss by Utah's Drca and the Utes were forced to foul the UNM senior guard with 31 seconds to play. Smith made both freebies and UNM was up 75-67. The Lobos got their final two points on two free shots by freshman Dairese Gary with 17 seconds to play.

The Lobos had five players in double figures with Faris leading the way with 15 points. Giddens and Chad Toppert added 14 points apiece. Smith had 12 points and Gary had 10.

Utah was led by Johnnie Bryant with 25 points. Nevill, who did not have a field-goal attempt in the first half, finished with 13 points and nine rebounds.

"My guards did a great job today helping me," said Faris. "Everytime he got a catch, they came down and helped. They really did the best job on him. I wsas just trying to keep him out (of the lane) and keep him under control.

"I hope I was frustrating to him because I was working as hard as I could. So hopefully I got into him a little bit."

The Lobos led 31-21 at the half before Utah rallied to take a nine-point lead in the second half. The Utes went on a 21-3 run to turn UNM's 44-35 lead into a 56-47 Utah lead. The Lobos then went on an 11-0 run to squeeze out a 58-56 lead.

Nevill then hit two baskets for Utah to put them up 60-58. Smith formed the final regulation score of 60-all with two free throws. It was a costly foul for Utah as it was Nevill's fourth.

The first half went pretty close to script for the Lobos as they grabbed a 31-21 lead over Utah going into the break.

The Lobos beat the Utes in just about every statistic in the first half, including the big one on the scoreboard.

UNM had more rebounds than Utah, more assists, fewer turnovers, more steals and more points.

Another key factor was UNM's Faris outplaying Utah's Nevill inside. Nevil did not have a field goal attempt in the first half and had three points (free throws) and four rebounds.

Faris had eight points, three rebounds, one steal, one blocked shot and one assist in the first 20 minutes.

The Lobos were paced in the first half by Toppert with nine points, all from 3-point range.

A big stat in the first half was UNM forcing Utah into 10 turnovers while the Lobos gave up the ball only three times. UNM also had seven steals to two for the Utes.

The Lobos jumped to a 14-5 at the 11:41 mark when Giddens muscled through a crowd for a putback on a rebound. That bucket brought Utah coach Jim Boylen to his feet begging for a timeout.

Utah made it 14-7 scoring a layup off a Giddens' turnover.

At the 10:41 media timeout, Nevill was almost no factor with one rebound, one turnover, one foul and no points.

Utah got as close as 15-12 at 7:48 but Toppert hit a 3-pointer off a screen near the top of the key to push UNM up 18-12.

A crowd-pleasing bucket in the first half was Gary leaping high to tap an in-bounds pass into the backcourt that he took in for a dunk.

The Pit also enjoyed a Nevill air ball on a free throw that came after Nevill hauled down a rebound and knocked UNM's Smith to the floor.