SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
No more perfecto on the men’s NCAA Division 1 top 25 basketball list as University of New Mexico became the last to fall.
The Lobos hit the road for a Mountain West test at Fresno State Tuesday night and was greeted with a 71-67 setback for their initial loss in 15 starts. For the Bulldogs it was an impressive effort in winning for only the sixth time in 14 starts before a rowdy turnout at their California Save Mart home court.
With this outcome, it might have knocked UNM off the charts. It had been ranked 18th and was 3-0 in the conference, but Fresno State, which had been struggling with its offense this season, turned things around by getting double-digit scoring from four of its players and making good on 53 percent of its shooting from the floor.
It also converted some handy free throws down the stretch after leading by 14 at one point, outscored the visitors bench 19-2, and while its offense slowed things down, its defense kept the Lobos from making their way inside.
Jamal Washburn did lead New Mexico with 22 points but missed the front end of a one-and-one from the foul line with 4:30 remaining and that sent the Bulldogs on an 8-2 run. From there, the Lobos went the final 4:30 without a field goal until a pair of charity tosses from Josiah Allick brought some points with two minutes left. From the floor they missed their last six attempts.
“The game went kind of went the way I thought it would go,” said second-year UNM head coach Richard Pitino, “they really slowed the pace down, made a variety of key baskets, and just outplayed us.”
It was 36-32 Fresno State at halftime. It made good on 26 of 52 tries from the field
and sank 12-of-16 freebies. The Lobos’ totals were 27-for-57 and 9-for-11. In rebounding, the Bulldogs had a 30-28 edge. They had two more fouls than the visiting team. In 3-point range buckets, Fresno State tossed in 7 of 21 and UNM 4 of 10.
New Mexico plays next at home Saturday in an expected sell-out as UNLV pays a visit.
One mistake found as the daily New Mexican newspaper listed the Lobos at “15-0 overall and 3-0” in the conference, but UNLV was correct listed in as coming in at 13-3 overall and 0-2 in the Mountain West.
Anyway, bye, bye perfection. It followed Monday night‘s second-straight Rutgers win over top-ranked Purdue that left only UNM standing just a little longer.
