Lobos hold off Aggies in 2nd half


By Eric Maddy
The SCORE

It was about what you’d expect in a game where the two teams were playing each other for the 201st time.

The New Mexico Lobos took its first lead less than a minute into the game, then held off archrival New Mexico State 76-62 in a men’s college basketball game Tuesday night at University Arena.

It was far from pretty. The first half might be best thought of as that purple and green Christmas sweater that you hope you can exchange a couple of days after finding it under the tree. The second half wasn't a birght shiny bicycle or a pony, but it was a little more stylish than the opening 20 minutes.

Hamidu Rahman hit a short jumper 10 seconds in the game to give New Mexico State the initial lead, but when Phillip McDonald answered with a 3-pointer 25 seconds later the Lobos had the lead. Little did they or the 17,197 fans who packed The Pit know that the Lobos would never trail again.

That’s not to say that it was easy. The Aggies fell behind as much as nine points in the first half but cut the margin to three just before intermission before Tony Dandridge hit a 3-pointer to stretch New Mexico’s lead to six at halftime.

New Mexico built the lead up to 10 points on a Dandridge rebound basket with 18:07 left, the Aggies went on a 14-with 11:59 left when Jahmar Young hit three free throws after being fouled on a three-point attempt.

A 7-2 run over the next two minutes allowed the Lobos to build back to seven. Chad Toppert and Roman Martinez each had a 3-pointer during that short key stetch.

The margin fluctuated between six and 11 points the rest of the way until the Lobos pulled away when the Aggies fouled in an attempt to get back into the game.

The Lobos, 8-5, were coming off their worst defensive effort of the year in a loss at Texas Tech on Saturday. Coach Steve Alford said he made his team watch all 85 of the Red Raiders’ offensive possessions in an attempt to correct defensive deficiencies, and it worked.

“We had a heavy emphasis on ourselves this week, especially defensively,” he said. “I thought we made some strides. In the second half we had some slippage but we got some key plays when we had to have them, some key charges when we had to have them. I like what we did on the backboard.”

The Lobos outrebounded NMSU 41-25, led by Martinez with nine, Daniel Faris with eight, Dandridge with seven andToppert with five. The Aggie leaders were Wendell McKines and Jahmar Young with five each.

“We have to rebound like that (as a team),” Alford said. “We don’t have one guy who can get 12 or 14 rebounds a night. I thought all of our guys did a good job.”

NMSU head coach Marvin Menzie was not too disappointed with his team’s performance.

“Getting 62 points on the road – that’s bad, but it’s not horrible,” he said. “I think we have to get better on defense. We need to get stronger. We were very resilient. I thought we took a step forward after our last game (an 84-69 loss at UTEP on Saturday.)

Dandridge, who has been working his way back into shape after missing all of last season with a knee injury, led all scorers with 22 points. Martinez had 15, McDonald 12 and Toppert 11 for the Lobos.

Young kept the Aggies in the game with 11 points in the first half and finished with 18 to top NMSU. Wendell McKines and Jonathan Gibson 12 each for the Aggies.

After shooting just 36 percent in the first half, NMSU was 50 percent from the field in the second stanza, though that percentage was in the 60s early in the half when the Aggies made their run. New Mexico was more consistent from the field, shooting 46.2 percent in the first half and 48.3 in the second.

One area where the Lobos did improve in the final 20 minutes was behind the arc, where they were 6-of-11 in the second half compared to 2-of-9 before intermission.

After nine turnovers in the first half, UNM had just two more after intermission. They struggled at the free throw line, making just 11-of-20 in the second half, but NMSU could not convert the misses into points down the stretch.

The two teams meet next Tuesday in Las Cruces, though the Aggies have a home game Monday against Loyola Marymount.