Jan. 2, 2009

UNM Game Notes in PDF Format

New Mexico (9-5, 0-0 MWC) opens its 10th season of Mountain West Conference play Saturday night against preseason league favorite UNLV (12-2, 0-0 MWC). Tip-off is 8:35 p.m. Mountain Time from the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. The Lobos were picked to finish fifth in the 2008-09 MWC preseason poll.

Saturday's game will be televised nationally by The mtn., which is channel 276 on Comcast Cable in Albuquerque and channel 616 on DirecTV. Tim Neverett and Joe Cravens will call the action.

Both teams closed the 2008 calendar year with narrow wins on the road. The Lobos prevailed 68-66 at in-state rival New Mexico State while UNLV nipped nationally-ranked Louisville 56-55.

UNLV is riding a seven-game winning streak, while the Lobos are 6-1 in their last seven contests, including 2-1 in road games.

Now 9-5 on the season, the Lobos were 3-4 at the end of November, but went 6-1 in December, punctuated by the victory at New Mexico State on Tuesday. Senior post Daniel Faris recorded his first career double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Lobos to their first season sweep over the Aggies since 2004.

Faris' six-footer in the lane with 39 seconds left proved to be the difference in a game that had six ties and eight lead changes.

UNLV is 12-2 after a 56-55 upset at No. 18 Louisville on Wednesday. Freshman Oscar Bellfield's layup with 16 seconds remaining won it for the Runnin' Rebels. UNLV held the Cardinals to just 29.6% (16-54) accuracy from the floor.

The Runnin' Rebels played without senior guard Wink Adams, who was sidelined with a lower abdominal strain suffered against Southern Utah on Dec. 23. Adams, the team's leading scorer at 14.1 points per game, had played in all 115 games of his UNLV career.

UNLV returns three starters from last year's team that finished 26-7 and won the MWC Tournament on its home floor in Las Vegas. The Runnin' Rebels lost to eventual national champion Kansas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

THE UNM-UNLV SERIES: The Lobos and Runnin' Rebels meet for the 37th time. UNLV has a 23-13 advantage and has dominated in Las Vegas, winning 14 of 18 meetings. UNLV has been even more troublesome for UNM in the Thomas & Mack Center, taking 12 of 14 games, including a 10-1 record in the last 11 meetings there. The Lobos' only wins against UNLV at the Thomas & Mack came in 1998 and 2005.

Last year, UNLV won 79-60 in Las Vegas, steaming to leads of 21-5 and 40-20 at halftime. The Lobos won 59-45 in The Pit.

UNM ALL-TIME IN THE MWC: New Mexico has a 63-69 overall record in Mountain West Conference play, 45-21 in The Pit and 18-48 on the road. UNM was 7-37 in league road games in six seasons before Steve Alford became New Mexico's head coach. Last year, the Lobos were 5-3 on the road and 11-5 overall. Both of those win totals were the best for UNM in conference competition in 10 years, since going 11-3 overall and 5-2 on the road during the 1997-98 Western Athletic Conference season.

The Lobos ended the 2007-08 regular season by winning their last 4 conference road games, a feat that had not happened since a 5-game streak in 1998. UNM closed the MWC regular season a year ago with wins at San Diego State, Air Force, Utah and Colorado State.

LOBOS IN MWC OPENERS: New Mexico has a 5-4 record in MWC openers, but it has lost four of the past six. The Lobos have a 3-6 mark in MWC lid-lifters on the road. They had lost six straight road openers from 2002-07 before prevailing last year at Wyoming 99-92 in double overtime.

NOTES TO KNOW BEFORE THE GAME

• The Lobos are 2-2 in true road games this year, and 10-8 in head coach Steve Alford's tenure at New Mexico...in the five seasons before Alford arrived, UNM had an 8-43 road record...UNM went 8-6 in 2007-08, tying a school record

• New Mexico had to rally from 12 or more points twice during the recent 4-game winning streak...UNM trailed Southern Miss 30-18, before prevailing 60-58...it was a 34-19 hole against Oral Roberts, but the Lobos rallied for a 66-63 victory

• The Lobos have won 25 straight games when allowing less than 60 points, and they are 46-2 in such games since 2004-05

• The Lobos are 38-1 in their last 39 non-conference home games and are 7-1 in The Pit this season, the only loss to Central Florida on Nov. 22

• New Mexico is 2nd in the MWC in FG pct. defense (39.3%)...opponents have shot just 40.4% (978-2,418) in 44 games against Steve Alford Lobo teams

• Senior Chad Toppert continues to rank No. 1 at UNM by making 45% of his career 3-point attempts...he is 3rd all-time at UNM with 222 career 3s

• Last year, UNM's 5th loss did not come until the 21st game of the season - a 16-5 start - on Jan. 26 at BYU

• It certainly looks like four true scholarship freshmen will letter for UNM in 2008-09: Will Brown, Nate Garth, A.J. Hardeman and Phillip McDonald...that has happened only one other time in the history of Lobo basketball: 1983-84 when five Lobos - Paul Connery, Hunter Greene, Larry Markland, Kelvin Scarborough and Mike Winters - all saw time...freshmen became eligible to play with the varsity in 1973-74

• Three Lobos did not play basketball last season: senior Tony Danridge was out with a broken leg while freshmen Will Brown and A.J. Hardeman were tending to academics

UNM-UNLV LAST YEAR IN LAS VEGAS: Wink Adams had a game high 24 points and Joe Darger added 17 as the Rebels never trailed in a 79-60 victory against New Mexico.

The Rebels opened the game on a 21-5 run, including a stretch of 13 unanswered points. Corey Bailey and Adams each had six points in the outburst.

UNLV opened the second half on an 8-2 run to extend a 20-point halftime advantage to 48-22. The Rebels led by at least 20 points until the final minute of the game when New Mexico scored the game's final seven points.

Matt Shaw had 13 points for UNLV, while Rene Rougeau added 11 and Curtis Terry had seven of the Rebels' 20 assists.

New Mexico committed 16 turnovers in the first half, including 10 in the opening eight minutes, as the Rebels led by as many as 22 points. The Lobos were also limited to six field goals in the half. J.R. Giddens led the Lobos with 13 points and Roman Martinez added 10.

UNM-UNLV LAST YEAR IN ALBUQUERQUE: J.R. Giddens had 17 points and 15 rebounds, lifting New Mexico to a 59-45 win over UNLV. The Lobos snapped a four-game losing streak to UNLV. Giddens was a force, collecting eight rebounds by halftime in his final homecourt appearance. He also had five assists and a steal.

UNLV point guard Wink Adams scored 12, four points below his average, but went scoreless in the second half. The Rebels shot 33 percent from the floor, hitting just 18-of-54.

UNLV had won four straight over New Mexico, including a 79-60 decision in Las Vegas on Feb. 2 when UNLV opened with a 21-5 run. The Lobos refused to let it happen again, forcing a grinding pace for a 24-22 halftime lead.

From there, New Mexico turned the tables, starting the second half with an 11-0 burst that stretched the lead to 35-24.

The Rebels missed their first four field goal tries and had three turnovers after the break, and the capacity crowd of 18,018 fans was at full roar as Chad Toppert hit a 3-pointer to force a UNLV timeout.

After the Rebels cut the deficit to 43-33 at the 10-minute mark, Prentice threw a long pass to Giddens for a thunderous slam dunk that kept the fans standing and the crowd noise at full volume.

Then, Roman Martinez collected a miss and banked it in to push New Mexico's lead to 47-33 with 7:44 remaining, and UNLV trailed 51-37 with 5 minutes to go when Smith drew the fourth and fifth fouls on Rebels point guard Wink Adams.

NEW MEXICO-NEW MEXICO STATE RECAP: Daniel Faris hit a jumper with 39 seconds left Tuesday night to help New Mexico past New Mexico State 68-66. Faris' jumper gave the Lobos a 67-66 lead. New Mexico State's Hernst Larouche missed a jumper with 18 seconds left that would have put the Aggies up by one.

New Mexico guard Dairese Gary followed with a free throw at 14.1 seconds to put the Lobos up 68-66. The Aggies had a chance to tie or win the game but missed two shots in the final seconds.

New Mexico earned a season sweep of NMSU for teh first time since 2004. New Mexico State lost for the first time at home this season.

New Mexico was led by Faris' 17 points and 11 rebounds. Roman Martinez added 16 points and Tony Danridge finished with 12 points.

The Lobos made five of their eight 3-pointers in the second half and also out-rebounded the Aggies 37-32. New Mexico also used a 24-15 advantage in points off turnovers toward the win.

New Mexico State got a season-high 22 points from guard Jonathan Gibson and 15 points from forward Wendell McKines. The Aggies stayed in the game by making 24 of 31 from the free throw line. New Mexico State shot just 39.6 percent from the field.

The first half was tight with six lead changes, but it was New Mexico that took a 30-28 halftime lead by scoring the final six points of the half. Neither team shot the ball well from the field -- NMSU shot 29.6, while UNM was a notch higher at 34.4. The two teams also combined for 21 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes.

POSTGAME NOTES FROM UNM-NMSU IN LAS CRUCES

• UNM got its first win in Las Cruces since 84-66 on Dec. 4, 2004...that was also the last time New Mexico swept the season series from New Mexico State

• The Lobos only made two field goals in last 10:52 after Chad Toppert's three gave UNM a 52-44 lead, matching its biggest lead of the game

• New Mexico held a 37-32 (+5) rebound advantage and improved to 7-2 this season when winning the battle of the boards

• UNM held NMSU leading scorer Jahmar Young to a season-low 7 points on 2-10 field goals...he came into the game averaging 18.1 points a game and had 30 in his last outing against Loyola Marymount

• After starting 6 of 12 from the FT line, the Lobos made 12 of their last 14

• New Mexico has made a 3-pointer in 595 consecutive games; the last time it didn't connect was Jan. 3, 1991, going 0-8 against Colorado State

• New Mexico tied its season-high with 20 turnovers

Senior Daniel Faris

• Recorded his first career double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds, just the second double-digit rebounding game of his career • 9 of 10 from the FT line, setting a career-high for FTs made • Pulled down a career-high 7 offensive rebounds (previous mark was 6 vs. North Carolina A&T in 2006-07)

Junior Roman Martinez

• With 16 points (4-8 from 3-point) and 6 rebounds, he is averaging 13.7 points and 7.7 rebounds over the past 6 games • Has scored in double figures in 5 of last 6 games

Freshman Nate Garth

• Only three-pointer of the night came at 12:32 in the second half to give UNM its biggest lead of the game at 49-41

UNM HEAD COACH Steve Alford: Steve Alford, 44, is in his second season in charge of Lobo hoops and his 18th year as a collegiate head coach. He was named UNM's 19th head coach on March 23, 2007.

Alford, who has never been an assistant coach is his career, has a 341-197 (63%) career record in his 18th season as a head coach, 33-14 at New Mexico. His teams have qualified for postseason play 12 times, produced 14 winning seasons and reached 21 wins on nine occasions.