UNM was led by sophomore guard Hugh Greenwood
who scored
season-high and game-high 17 points. Junior Kendall Williams added
13 points
and nine assists.
Redshirt sophomore Alex Kirk posted his third
consecutive
double-double scoring 13 points and pulling down 13 rebounds for
New Mexico,
which moved to 9-0 on the season.
“I’m just proud of the team,” said head coach
Steve Alford.
“We’ve had great effort. I thought our pace and intensity tonight
was even up a
level. And maybe it was because we started making some shots. From
five minutes
to go in the first half to five minutes to go in the game, that
was a really
high level of basketball for us and that was good to see – a lot
of positive in
this one.”
Southern Cal (3-5) opened on a 5-0 run and
continued to
shoot well. UNM managed to tied the game 15-15 14:41 into the
first half before
going on a 13-3 run to take a 28-18 lead with 8:06 left in the
half.
New Mexico responded with a 13-2 run of its own
as USC went
cold from the field to take its first lead at 31-30 with four
minutes left in
the first half. The Lobo run continued as UNM outscored the
Trojans 12-4 the
rest of the way to take a 43-34 lead into the half.
“It was a big run,” said Alford of the Lobos’
first half
scoring burst. “I think we had another one there in the second
half that was
big (too). But when you’re down 10 and to go into the half up
nine, so you have
a 19 point turn around in one half… then you build it to 17. You
got a 17-point
lead at home and there’s a lot of things that have to go wrong to
lose it.”
Both teams shot over 50 percent in the first
half – UNM shot
16 of 29 (55.2%) compared to USC’s 14 of 24 (58.3%) but the Lobos
hit five more
three pointers (7 of 13 compared to the Trojans’ 2 of 6,) which
ended up being
one of the keys to the first half.
New Mexico shot just 4 of 10 from the free
throw line in the
first half and finished 11 of 24 for the game – the Lobos’ poorest
showing from
the charity stripe all season.
The two teams played evenly to open the half
before UNM 9-2
run to take a 63-47 lead.
The Trojans managed a 10-0 run to cut the
Lobos’ lead to
70-65 with 1:53 left in the game.
But Williams ended the UNM drought with a trey
then Greewood
hit a jumper with 1:07 left to take the UNM lead to 75-65. USC’s
Jio Fontan
managed a final lay up with nine seconds left but that ended the
scoring.
Southern California finished with five players
in double
figures led by Eric Wise, who scored 14 points on 6 of 9 shooting.
DeWayne Dedmon and Byron Wesley added 12 each while Fontan and J.T.
Terrell each added
11 points. Dedmon led USC with nine rebounds but New Mexico
outrebounded the
Trojans 31-23 despite USC’s height advantage.
The Lobos got scoring from all 10 players who
had minutes in
the game. Chad Adams added eight points on 2 of 4 three-point
shooting and
Cameron Bairstow added six points, playing just 11 minutes due to
foul trouble.
For the game UNM and Southern Cal shot about
even overall –
28 of 54 (51.9%) for the Lobos to 27 of 51 (52.9%) for USC. But
the Lobos
outshot the Trojans 11- of 24 (45.85) to 4 of 13 (30.8%).
Southern Cal did outscore New Mexico 32-20 in
the paint and
17-4 on fast break points and led UNM in free throws, shooting
nine of 12 (75%)
to the Lobos’ 8 of 14 (57.1%)
Alford was complimentary of his team after the
game.
“Pancake (Cleveland Thomas) came off the bench
and gave us a
huge lift in the first half,” said Alford. “It doesn’t show in the
stats but he
gave us a big lift. Cam go in foul trouble early, so we had to
play Alex a lot
tonight. We’ll get him some rest. Kendall was huge tonight, he
really started
hitting some shots and making things happen.”