New Mexico vs BYU Basketball Recap

New Mexico 76, BYU 72

The Brigham Young Cougars might have been a little more precise in Wednesday night's Mountain West game of the season, but the New Mexico Lobos proved to be a little more athletic and powerful. As a result, Craig Thompson is one very happy man.

Thompson, of course, is the commissioner of the Mountain West Conference and a man who has served on the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee, otherwise known as the group that will pick the field of 65 for the upcoming NCAA Tournament. Because of this four-point win by New Mexico before a packed house at The Pit in Albuquerque, N.M., it looks increasingly likely that "Los Lobos" will join the Cougars for a March Madness "Dance" party.

How did Steve Alford's men of New Mexico outlast coach Dave Rose's BYU bunch? In a word, relentlessness. BYU might have shot a lot better than UNM from the foul line (80 percent to 64 percent), and Cougar superstar Jimmer Fredette (7 of 7 at the foul line) might have been the best free thrower on Bob King Court's hardwood surface, but at the end of the day, pure percentages aren't enough to earn the spoils of victory.

New Mexico's Dairese Gary was able to duel and defeat Fredette in a sensational matchup of point guards. While Fredette threw down 27 points and kept BYU afloat down the stretch, Gary drove home the daggers that enabled the Lobos to prevail. Gary scored nine of his team-high 25 points in the final 95 seconds of regulation, and went 7 of 8 at the line in that stretch. Yes, Gary missed 5 of 17 foul shots, but his volume (12 makes) eclipsed Fredette's more precise but less productive stat line. In a game decided by just two baskets, that little difference meant a lot.

Now, New Mexico is in possession of not just a 19-3 record, but the highest-value win any MWC team could claim: a triumph over the league's standard bearer from Provo, Utah. UNM already has some solid non-conference wins to its credit, against Cal, Texas Tech, and Texas A&M, so the ability of this team to supplement its intersectional results with a neighborhood conquest will go a long way toward impressing the selection committee on a fateful Sunday in mid March. If other bubble teams were trending downward over the past week or so, New Mexico is definitely trending upward, and to a considerable degree at that. Only a February collapse could keep this team out of the event college basketball fans and players live for.

One other notable aspect of UNM's win was that it came despite a horrible five-point, 1 of 11 shooting performance from tweener wing player Darington Hobson. The Las Vegas native did work hard and pull down 14 boards, but his lack of shooting put Alford and his coaching staff in a bind. For UNM to win a game of this magnitude - with one of its stars lacking a good shooting touch - speaks volumes not just about the job Alford is doing, but about the resilience of a team that has "N-C-A-A" written all over it.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer