New Mexico vs UNLV Basketball Recap

New Mexico 76, UNLV 66

The UNLV Runnin' Rebels tried their very best to mount an epic comeback on Wednesday night, but the New Mexico Lobos found the finishing kick they needed to gain a crucial degree of leverage in the Mountain West Conference race.

This mammoth matchup at the Thomas and Mack Center - which featured two teams in possession of identical 7-2 conference records - wasn't just important in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States. The clash between the No. 19 Lobos and the 25th-rated Rebels gained national attention, as two NCAA-worthy opponents with name coaches - Steve Alford for UNM and Lon Kruger for Vegas - waged fierce combat in front of an electric crowd.

The Rebel fans who attended this tilt might have walked away disappointed at the end, but they certainly weren't cheated in terms of drama or entertainment value.

Near the midway point of the second half, it appeared that "Los Lobos" were going to run away and hide in this highly-anticipated second installment of the season series. After UNLV won in Albuquerque on Jan. 9 by a double-digit margin, New Mexico raced to a 31-16 lead in the first half and remained resourceful enough to establish a 61-43 bulge with 11:40 remaining in regulation. Spurred by do-everything dynamo Darington Hobson (16 points and 13 rebounds in this game), the visitors from the Land of Enchantment weren't making their hosts very happy.

In short order, Lon Kruger's kids decided to do something about their increasingly dire situation.

In the next eight minutes, Vegas put New Mexico's offense on lockdown. White-shirted defenders hounded and handcuffed the Lobos, allowing just four points and only one made field goal over the next eight minutes. With 3:38 left in regulation, the home team - on a pair of free throws by star guard Tre'Von Willis (who struggled for most of the game and finished with only 13 points after posting 33 against BYU on Saturday) - shaved a once-daunting deficit to a 65-63 margin. The arena was going nuts, and Steve Alford's athletes had a crisis on their hands. How were they going to steady the ship in the face of UNLV's newfound momentum, which had been snowballing for a considerable amount of time?

The response emerged soon enough.

The best way for a road team to quiet a loud crowd is to work with vigor and passion. When collections of college kids become intimidated by their surroundings, they play passively and go through the motions of basketball without a well-defined sense of purpose. Teams that can endure in enemy lairs are the ones who finish plays and refuse to stop competing. That's what New Mexico did against Vegas on Wednesday.

When the Lobos were in trouble and a huge lead was just about to turn into a flat-footed tie, they crashed the boards with a vengeance. Yes, UNM owned the glass throughout this game, but the crew from Albuquerque was able to max out on the backboard in the crucible of crunch time. Hobson put back a miss to give New Mexico an ever-so-slight amount of breathing room - at 67-63 - with 3:15 left, and a few sequences later, a pair of offensive boards led to an A.J. Hardeman basket which created a 72-66 cushion with 1:35 to go. The Rebels - who expended so much energy in the course of their big second-half charge - couldn't stick any jumpers in the final few minutes of regulation, and as a result, the boardwork and gruntwork of the Lobos carried them through to the finish line on the road. Now at 8-2 in the Mountain West, New Mexico has a shot to overthrow league standard-bearer BYU for the regular season league title. UNLV fell to 7-3 in the conference, and must focus on finishing the season strong to secure an at-large tournament bid.

Elbow grease quiets crowds, stops runs, and wins basketball games. Effort on the glass - and little else - saved New Mexico near the end of a thrilling night of hoops in Sin City.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer