LAS VEGAS – When point guard Hugh Greenwood waves to the crowd at the Thomas & Mack Center it’s usually after a New Mexico victory.
Not this time.
Greenwood waved goodbye to the fans for the final time after a 68-61 loss to Air Force in the first play-in game of the Mountain West tournament. It’s the first time that the Lobos have lost in the tourney since 2011 and Greenwood’s record in the tournament is now 9-1.
The Lobos (15-16) had won the past three MW tournament titles.
“Just walking off, I wasn’t really thinking about the loss. I was more thinking about thanking the fans for an incredible four years,” Greenwood said. “Unfortunately this season didn’t go the way we wanted it to.
“But at the end of the day our fans have always been supportive, they’ve been supportive of me and my family. I wanted to thank them. That was my moment to thank them one last time. Last time with a Lobo jersey on.”
In the loss, AFA forced UNM to shoot more 3-pointers than the team is usually comfortable with. The Lobos went just 8 of 25 from beyond the arc (32 percent), compared to the Falcons’ 8-of-21 clip (38.1 percent).
Greenwood hit half of UNM’s 3-pointers as he went 4 of 9. The senior finished with 16 points and six rebounds in his final collegiate game.
“Well, personally I felt like they gave us open shots, so coach told us to shoot open shots,” guard Sam Logwood said. “We shot open shots. That’s what they gave us. We just didn’t make ‘em. That’s unfortunate.”
Early in the game, UNM’s defense held AFA in check. The eighth-seeded Lobos raced to a 15-6 lead with 10:43 left in the first half after two made free throws from forward Joe Furstinger. The Falcons started off the game by going 2-15 from the field.
However, AFA (14-16) battled back and cut UNM’s lead to 32-28 heading into halftime.
“I think it was a little bit of nerves at the beginning, just coming out,” Falcon forward Hayden Graham said. “It’s a big scene. It’s a conference tournament. We had to get settled in.”
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Air Force’s nerves didn’t show in the second half. A 3-pointer by Zach Kocur gave the Falcons a 38-36 edge in the second half for their first lead since the start of the game.
UNM answered and built a 52-47 lead with less than eight minutes left in the first half after Logwood’s final three of the game. Logwood finished with 14 points and seven boards.
The Falcons retook the lead when Kocur hit a 3-pointer for a 54-53 edge. UNM trailed for the rest of the game as Air Force outscored the Lobos 14-8 the remainder of the half. With the win, the ninth-seeded Air Force will now play No. 1 seed Boise State on Thursday at 12 p.m.
Kocur finished with a game-high 20 points on 6-12 shooting, including 4-9 from beyond the arc.
“Yeah, I realized one of the reasons I’m out there is to shoot threes,” he said.
Turnovers were also another reason why the Lobos fell as they had 18 errors on the day. The Falcons took advantage by scoring 21 points off of UNM’s turnovers.
“Their offense is hard to guard, that’s why we played a lot of zone. It’s not fun to guard. When you zone them, besides the shots they make, they’ve never been a really good transition team,” head coach Craig Neal said. “When you turn over the ball, it gives them chances to get easy points. I think that affected us.”
UNM hit 20 of 48 (41.7 percent) from the field and hit just 59.1 percent (13 of 22) of its free throws. AFA hit 24-50 (48 percent) of its field goal attempts and went 12-16 (75 percent) from the line.
Thomas Romero-Salas is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @ThomasRomeroS.
