The Jackrabbits trailed just once, 3-0 less
than two minutes
into the game, the roared out to a 12-2 run and literally never
looked back in
stunning previously-undefeated New Mexico (12-1), which came in
ranked 16th in
the AP poll and 17th in the Coaches poll.
“We never got in sync all night,” said UNM head
coach Steve Alford. “Our rhythm was bad I think from beginning to end. And
they [South
Dakota State] had a lot to do with that. It's a very good
basketball team. They
play well together. The Wolters kid is the real deal and as good
of a point
guard as we've played all year.”
Senior Nate Wolters scored 28 points on 9 of 15
shooting to
lead South Dakota St. (10-4) to the win and the Jackrabbits
finished with four
players scoring in double figures and outrebounding the Lobos
36-28.
UNM played without junior Kendall Williams and
senior Chad Adams in the starting line-up, due to their being late showing up
Saturday
morning. Guard Hugh Greenwood said the change in line-ups hurt the
team.
"It threw us out of sync,” said Greenwood. “You
want
your starting lineup and starts are very important. Tonight they
jumped us at
the start with a different lineup.”
For his part, Williams – who scored a team-high
21 points
and dished 4 assists for UNM – took responsibility for the loss.
“As far as the loss goes most of it is on my
hands and some
on Chad in terms of not keeping it consistent,” he said. “We have
to move on
and I take a lot of blame for it on and off the court. I need to
pick it up. We
have a few days off and we need to move on."
After trailing by as much as nine at 21-12 at
9:14 left in
the first half, New Mexico rallied to cut the deficit to 23-20 on
a Greenwood
three pointer.
But as they would do all night, SDSU answered
and ran the
lead up to 35-23 with 4:50. The Lobos rallied again to cut the
Jackrabbits’
lead to 38-34 at halftime.
SDSU opened the second half on a 6-2 run to
take a 45-36
lead with 17:25 left in the game. UNM was able to rally one last
time to cut
the Jacks’ lead to 51-48 on a Jamal Fenton three pointer with 8:57
left in the
game.
But SDSU countered with a 6-0 run and upped
their defensive
effort, keeping the Lobos from hitting another field goal until 30
seconds left
in the game as New Mexico was limited to shooting free throws for
just over
eight minutes.
Forced to foul in the final minute, UNM never
cut the lead
under five points. Williams hit a three-pointer with 14 seconds to
cut the
score to 70-65. Greenwood forced a turnover on the inbounds but
Williams missed
a lay up and the follow and SDSU gathered the ball and with four
seconds left
to secure the win.
“Two teams had to play tonight and one team was
a lot more
focused than the other at both ends of the floor,” said Alford.
“And the
indiscipline that we've had now here off the floor showed up on
the floor
tonight. Our offense was executed extremely poorly. I can give
them a lot of
credit defensively. But I also credit a real lack of execution
offensively on
our guy's part."
South Dakota St. shot 14 of 27 in the first
half for 51.9%
shooting and finished with a 24 of 50 performance (48%). The
Jackrabbits also
went 13 of 15 from the freee throw line (86.7%). Jordan Dykstra
added 10 points
and 10 rebounds for SDSU while Brayden Carlson scored 10 points
and Chad White
added 13 points.
Junior Tony Snell was the only other player in
double
figures for UNM, scoring 13 pints on 3 of 9 shooting. Alex Kirk
led the Lobos
in rebounds with six and added six points.