Lobos win by 10 points at Hawaii

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“We didn’t do a very good job in the last six minutes of finding him,” Alford said of Nash, the son of first-year Hawaii coach Bob Nash. “We’ve got to show the guys some of that on tape, but boy we made some big plays.”

Perhaps the biggest play came with New Mexico clinging to a 62-59 lead with 3:18 left in the game. Reserve Monquel Pegues made a free throw but missed the second, and J.R. Giddens grabeed the rebound, scored and was fouled. His conversion of the old-fashioned three-point play gave UNM a 66-59 lead and some breathing room.

Even though Hawaii got within three again, Giddens made a driving layup, Dairese Gary made 3-of-4 free throws and Roman Martinez added a basket in less than 30 seconds to rebuild the UNM lead to 10.

Giddens finished 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Lobos. Gary had 12 (all in the second half) and Martinez 11 for UNM.

Matt Gibson led Hawaii with 19 points, Nash added 18 (all on three-pointers) and Riley Luettgerodt had 11 for the Rainbow Warriors, who dropped to 3-8.

New Mexico made 27 of 49 shots (53 percent), including two of eight from beyond the 3-point arc, and was 23-of-33 from the free throw line (70 percent). By comparison, Hawaii was just 23-of-53 shooting (43 percent), though they did go 9-for-19 in 3-pointers (47 percent). Hawaii made 14-of-18 free throw attempts (78 percent).

UNM out-rebounded Hawaii 33-26 and had 11 offensive rebounds, 13 assists, 18 turnovers, three blocked shots and 10 steals. Hawaii’s numbers: 18 assists, 17 turnovers, three blocks and seven steals.

“We shot right at 70 percent (in free throws) but on the road if you can get there 33 times to your home opponent’s 18, out-rebound them by seven and shoot the ball at a 55 percent clip, you’ve done some good things.”

In addition to leading the game in scoring, Farris had four rebounds, a blocked shot and two steals.

“Our guys did a nice job of finding him, and Daniel did an outstanding job of making plays, of finishing plays,” Alford said. “He’s really been working hard in practice to eliminate the dribble and I thought and tonight he just caught the ball and did things. He attacked the basket and he’s got a great touch. He was really good.”

But it was Darren Prentice, who came off the bench to score nine points, who drew special praise from Alford.

“I can’t say enough about Darren. He’s sick with the stomach flu,” Alford said. “He didn’t practice yesterday, and he was sick before he game, and he gives us 25 minutes as hard as he can go. And that’s what this team has been doing all year, just very, very unselfish. I really appreciated his effort.”

Giddens had three assists, a block and a steal in addition to his points.

“J.R. was solid throughout the whole game,” Alford said. “He had to play 35 minutes with Jamaal (Smith) getting hurt – we’ve got to hope he’s O.K., but he didn’t get to play the whole second half – so we’ve got concerns there. Dairese Gary came up big in the second half with his foul shooting, knocking some balls loose and getting some steals for us.

“So with Monquel  getting into foul trouble in a minute, Jamaal not playing and Darren being sick, we had some issues on the bench. I couldn’t be more pleased with how our guys handled it.”

Smith’s injury was not apparent at courtside and only mentioned in passing by Alford in his post-game radio interview.

UNM’s bench was a key: Every Lobo scored and had at least one rebound.

“That’s going to be pivotal for us (in conference play),” Alford said.

The Lobos used a 15-4 spurt midway through the first half and a 8-0 spurt late in the period to overcome a sloppy start and take a 38-28 lead at intermission.

New Mexico showed the effects of three days on the islands early in the game. UNM turned the ball over on its first three possessions and trailed 11-4 at one point before Martinez scored seven of the next eight points to cut the margin to 12-11.

UNM finally took the lead at 16-15 on a Ferris basket from Jonathan Wills with 8:45 left in the half.

“We really got into them to start the game. I thought there were two or three guys who thought they were still on the island having fun instead of what we were really here for, and they really responded. And that’s what we told them at halftime.

“We’ve got to be able to play in environments like this because we know it is only going to get more difficult in January and February (in Mountain West Conference play).”

Only 3,136 fans were in attendance.

The Lobos led just 26-24 when it scored eight straight points to stretch its lead to 34-24, with Ferris contributing two baskets in the run. UNM built its lead to 12 points on a steal and basket by Giddens, but Hawaii’s Paul Campbell scored at the buzzer to cut the margin to 10 at intermission.

“We’ve got a little bit of time off after a long flight tonight (the team is scheduled to return at 11:19 a.m. Friday). We’ll get some rest for a couple of days and then get back at it, because we know as we begin the new year we have a very difficult road test at UTEP (on Jan. 2) before we get to the road game (the conference opener on Jan. 5) at Wyoming.

“I couldn’t be more pleased to go through ‘07 and get it to 12 wins. These kids have really done some very good things.”