Despite a career-high 24 points by sophomore point guard Marlon Parmer and a season-high-tying 18 points by senior forward Wayland White Saturday, the University of Utah handed the streaky UNM men's basketball team its third straight loss.
After beginning Mountain West Conference play 3-2, the Lobos (17-11 overall and 6-8 MWC) dropped four consecutive games, and then won three in row before their recent plummet. Now UNM will have to win three games in three days at the Mountain West Tournament to get a ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
"We've been up and down all year," senior Brian Smith said. "We've lost three in a row. So hopefully we can win three in a row, get on a little streak, stop the slide and start playing well again."
The 66-61 loss leaves UNM with its first losing conference record since the 1982-83 squad went 6-10. With the victory, Utah (19-10, 10-4 MWC) takes the regular season conference crown, and earns the number-one seed and a bye in the first round of the tournament.
UNM will face Colorado State University Thursday night at 10 p.m. in its first-round game, with the winner to play Utah Friday night.
The Lobos kept pace with the much taller Ute squad for much of the game.
White got off to a fast start, dunking an alley-oop feed from Parmer and scoring on a driving layup to aid the Lobos to an early 6-5 lead.
Later, after Utah had surged to leads of 13-6 and 17-12, another dunk by White put the Lobos up 26-25.
After the break, Utah's Chris Burgess broke a 32-32 tie to begin the second half and neither team scored again until Parmer's basket with almost five minutes gone broke the scoring drought.
Then a seesaw battle ensued.
After being tied at 34, the two teams would trade leads nine times the rest of the second half.
With the Utes paying special attention to shooting guards Ruben Douglas and Eric Chatfield, Parmer penetrated the lane at will and was almost solely responsible for keeping the Lobos in the game.
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"Marlon was terrific," UNM head coach Fran Fraschilla said. "They couldn't guard him."
Tim Lightfoot's two free throws put the Lobos up 60-58 with 1:45 to play, but Nate Althoff - Utah's only senior - knocked down a bucket from underneath the basket to tie the game. After a failed Parmer drive, White was called for basket interference on an attempted block with less than 30 seconds left, which gave the Utes a decisive 62-60 lead.
"I honestly don't think it was on the way down when he blocked it," Fraschilla said. "It's an impossible call to make. Once he blocked the ball, it came down, so it looked like it was on the way down."
Parmer was fouled in the lane on UNM's ensuing drive, giving him a chance to tie the game. But his first attempt hit the left side of the rim, and though he made the second, it would be the Lobos' last point of the day.
After Utah's Travis Spivey hit two free throws to give the Utes a 64-61 advantage, the Lobos used a well-executed in-bounds play to get Parmer an open look at a 3-pointer, but the shot sailed off the iron. Kevin Bradley sank two more free throws for Utah's final margin of victory.
"I had some bad breaks at the end, and I couldn't win the game for my team," a dejected Parmer said. "I let them down."
In White's and Smith's final regular-season games as Lobos, the two were a picture of polarity.
White added six rebounds, two blocks and two steals to his 18 points, while Smith scored only four points and pulled down four rebounds. When Smith picked up his fifth foul with less than five minutes remaining he went to the bench, clearly overcome with emotion.
"I'm an emotional player and I'm always going to go out and give it everything that I have," Smith said. "I'd gladly trade statistic for a win, but unfortunately, we didn't get that today."
Parmer said the prospect of losing its team leaders to graduation led to an overspill of emotion in all UNM players before the game, after both White and Smith offered bouquets of flowers to their mothers, who were in attendance.
"It made me feel like it was my last game," Parmer said. "I felt for the guys. I'm sorry we couldn't get them a win. They're our leaders and we just couldn't get it for them."
If the Lobos do not receive an NCAA bid, they are likely to be invited to the other Division-I men's postseason tournament, the National Invitational Tournament.
UNM was invited to play in the NIT last year, despite its 17-13 overall record.
The Lobos won a first-round home game at The Pit against the University of South Florida then dropped a second-round a game to eventual NIT champion Wake Forest University on its home floor in North Carolina.
White said the team would like to continue to play.
"We'll take the NIT to try to keep it going," White said. "But we're still looking at heading to the NCAAs by winning the conference tournament."
The NIT is not as sweet a prospect for Parmer, though.
"It's not cool for me, I went last year," Parmer said. "I don't want to do that, but if we go, we'll go out and play hard."
