SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
No matter how much the University of New Mexico tried to reel in a Mountain West Conference at Boise State Wednesday night, the Broncos weren’t going to let it happen.
Undefeated at home now in nine starts at its Extra Mile Arena Idaho court, the Broncos fell behind by a dozen points and being outplayed by the visitors seeking a post-season tournament berth, until Boise State took advantage of an ice cold UNM team down the stretch to prevail 82-77.
A 6-point favorite, the Broncos thus handed the Lobos their fifth setback in their last six games and dropped them into a fifth place tie with San Jose State. While Boise State made it to 22-6 overall and remained in second place in the conference at 12-3, New Mexico fell to 21-8 and 7-8 as the stretch run set in.
Friday night the UNLV plays at the Air Force and Wyoming heads for Colorado State. Saturday, the Lobos are home to first place, 22nd-ranked San Diego State, and Boise State travels to San Jose State.
“I think we played very hard,” UNM head coach Richard Pitino, “but I don’t think we played very smart, especially at the offensive end and in the second half.”
Down the stretch, his team missed 11 of 12 shots from the field over the final three minutes with three games remaining in the regular season. With four teams ahead of them in the conference, the Lobos might not make it into the NCAA tournament despite an impressive overall record.
Boise State did a masterful job defending UNM junior Jamal Mashburn, his team’s leading scorer. Not only did Mashburn have his 48-game double digit scoring streak snapped, but he shot only 2-for-15 from the field and tallied only season-low seven points.
“I thought he missed some that he usually makes,” Pitino said.
Senior teammate post Morris Udeze did have a double-double with 18 points and 14 rebounds, while senior guard Jalen House added 14 points despite his own struggles from the floor. He missed 10 of his 15 attempts and was 1-for-6 from beyond the 3-point arc.
UNM was seeking a season sweep over the Broncos and for a good portion of this contest on the road, looked like the better team. It trailed 20-15 nine minutes in but scored eight straight points to open a 37-24 lead.
In that span, Boise State had its fans concerned when it went ice cold, at one point missing 12 of 13 shots while the Lobos’ balanced attack was their biggest weapon. But they also had three players in foul trouble and that included House, Odeze and Josiah Allick.
Max Rice was the big man on offense for the home side with 30 points, Tyson Degenhart contributed 13 to go with seven boards and Augie Asbo scored a dozen. Twenty two of Rice’s points came over the second half as he hit from the outside and penetrated to the basket.
Odeze picked up his fourth personal with 6:09 left during and extended dry spell for the visitors. Rice then tossed in back-to-back 3s to open an eight-point lead. The advantage then grew to 10 before a late New Mexico run made it respectable at the final buzzer.
The Lobos had a 41-39 edge in rebounds, 11-8 in assists, hit on 21-of-64 from the field and made 8-out-of-25 3s, as well as four blocks. They committed 24 fouls.
The Broncos were called for 17 fouls, were good for 26-of-65 from the floor, had one block and seven turnovers to 10 for UNM, while coming away with a pair of steals against four for the Lobos.
Pitino’s team had high hopes that fell victim to Boise State’s success on its court.
