A second-half offensive blitz wasn't enough to overcome the UNM men's basketball team's woeful free-throw shooting in its heart-breaking 95-90 overtime loss to No. 18 Gonzaga University in The Pit Monday.
The Lobos clawed back into the nationally televised game late Monday night after being saddled with a 10-point first-half deficit, but they came up painfully short on numerous opportunities to seal a win.
"Well it hurts, obviously, but I think the first thing is to talk about is the effort we made," UNM head coach Fran Fraschilla said. "I sensed that we might have grown up a little bit more. We got beat by a hell of a team, and we got beat by a team that just moved up to 18 in the polls, but I feel like they might be better than that."
UNM point guard Marlon Parmer and his teammates wore their disappointment on their sleeves following the game, unhappy with a close overtime defeat to a ranked team.
"Without a doubt this was our most painful loss of the year," he said. "We just beat ourselves, and we just didn't make free throws."
Fraschilla compared the matchup to a heavyweight fight and said the Lobos dropped a hard-fought split decision.
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"I thought we gave as good an effort as we possibly could," he said.
While stopping short of calling the loss a moral victory, Fraschilla said that it was a hard-fought defeat that Lobos should not dwell on for too much longer.
"If we can put in an effort like this every night for the next six or seven weeks, we are going to be a very good team that's tough to beat," he said.
After utilizing an offense based on perimeter shots and a smattering of transition and perimeter buckets, Fraschilla turned Parmer and guard Ruben Douglas loose to penetrate and create their own shots in the second half. Late in the game, Douglas single-handedly racked up 15 straight points before sputtering at the end of regulation. He finished with 19 points and five rebounds in 31 minutes.
Parmer complemented Douglas' play with 30 points, seven rebounds, five assists and just two turnovers in 39 minutes of play.
But it was the Lobos' inability to connect on key plays and clutch balanced scoring by the Bulldogs that gave Gonzaga the win.
UNM guard Eric Chatfield spent the game trying the reign in Gonzaga's star point guard Dan Dickau, and the stymieing defense resulted in a charge by Dickau with seven seconds remaining in regulation with score knotted at 78 apiece. Gonzaga guard Alex Hernandez slammed the ball in frustration following the call and was whistled for a technical foul. Douglas went to the line and missed both free throws, a trip he says will haunt him for a long time.
"I certainly will lose some sleep tonight over that," Douglas said ruefully after the game. "I mean, there's not much you can say. We had it in our grasp, and we let it slip away. It's just the way the game goes sometimes."
While Douglas' missed free throws were among the more pivotal, the Lobos combined to miss 14 in the game, including several during key possessions.
"I am sure people will dwell on those free throws," Fraschilla said. "They'll be talking about those free-throws 30 years from now when I'm not coaching anymore, but that's the way the game is. That's basketball. Every once in awhile everyone misses some."
Bulldogs' head coach Mark Few said that while he didn't think his team was going to lose, the outlook didn't look good with Douglas stepping to the free-throw line.
"The fat lady wasn't singing yet, but she certainly was clearing her throat," he said. "We were very fortunate to come out with a win, and I bet Ruben won't miss another two free throws in a row the rest of the year."
The Lobos had more one shot to win in regulation when inbounding the ball under Gonzaga's basket as a result of the charge Chatfield drew. Fraschilla designed a play that put the ball in Parmer's hands.
"We wanted him to drive to the basket and blow past the guys the way he had been doing all night, but he just couldn't get the ball up the court fast enough - it happens," he said.
Parmer said he lost control of the ball when driving up the court and opted to slow down to avoid turning the ball over and giving Gonzaga a look at a game-winning shot.
Gonzaga quickly took control of the game in overtime and foul trouble came back to haunt the Lobos, who were already suffering from a substantially scaled back inside game that left gaping holes on defense.
Sophomore center Patrick Dennehy played just 15 minutes and fouled out of the game, while center Moustapha Diagne played an energetic six minutes but could not shake off foot and elbow injuries to help the team.
"We definitely missed Patrick in there late in the game, but there's not much you can do about it now," Parmer said. "You just have to learn from it and move on. We need to teach him how to guard with your feet and not with your hands so he makes it to the end of the game."
Gonzaga picked up its running game and drew fouls on several key players, including Douglas, who fouled out.
Fraschilla lauded his team's effort despite the loss. He said he was impressed that, despite lack of experience and depth inside, the Lobos closed the 25-16 rebounding gap that the Zags had in the first half to 42-38.
"We just have to dwell on the positive here," he said. "We've been in this situation before and we cracked, but this time we just knew we had it in us to play a really close game. If we can keep this up down the line, it will be a good year."
Few said he was pleased his team overcame both UNM's guard play and the 17,423 hostile fans in The Pit, calling it the toughest venue his team has played in this year.
"We had no answer for the guards and those guys really are something else," he said. "They were the hardest team we've had to guard this year."
Despite the equal helpings of criticism for failing to make big plays and praise for playing well against a ranked opponent, Douglas said the loss would hurt for awhile and that the team would just have to get over it by focusing on the upcoming Mountain West Conference season.
"You really can't point your finger after a game like this," he said. "We win and we lose as a team. Tonight, we lost."
