UNM capitalized on its sagging man-to-man defense and friendly officiating to stun the University of Wyoming men's basketball team 74-65 in The Pit late Monday night.
"It's a good win, we played hard, we beat a good team, we had a lot of people step up big for us," head coach Fran Fraschilla said.
Fouls proved to be the difference in the game, with one of the more decisive coming with 5:03 remaining. That's when guard Marcus Bailey fouled out trying to stop Lobo guard Ruben Douglas from driving to basket with UNM up 57-51. Bailey had helped the Cowboys cut the Lobos' lead to as little as three points, but once Douglas sank his two free throws, UNM never led by less than four .
A layup by Cody Payne and consistent foul shooting in the final five minutes by Douglas, point guard Senque Carey and post player Patrick Dennehy put the game out of reach.
The game was the ultimate upset for Fraschilla and his Lobos, who had not beat the Cowboys in the past five games. UNM improves its record to 16-10 overall and 6-6 in conference play, while Wyoming falls to 18-7 overall and 9-3 in the Mountain West.
The win also threw conference standings into disarray heading into next week's conference tournament championship in Las Vegas.
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Wyoming and the University of Utah are now tied for first place, followed by the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and Brigham Young University at 7-5. The Lobos retain fifth place and are one game ahead of San Diego State University. UNM could still finish in alone in third place if it sweeps its final two games and BYU and UNLV both lose their remaining games.
The referees set the tone for ESPN's "Big Monday" game that was also "Senior Night" for Lobos Eric Chatfield, Tim Lightfoot, Pat Kelley and Beau Anderson.
UNM capitalized on early foul trouble that hurt many of the Cowboys' key scorers, including all-conference center Josh Davis. During the first four minutes of the second half, 13 fouls were called. Davis picked up his third foul with 17:49 remaining. Wyoming was forced to rotate several key inside players to compensate for the foul trouble. Davis, who averages 12 points a game, ended with just five.
UNM also was hurt by the foul bug, but used five inside players and a sagging perimeter defense to compensate.
Post player Moustapha Diagne saw a career-high 12 minutes of playing time and post players Dennehy, Jamaal Williams, Payne and Chad Bell all paced the Lobos with considerable minutes.
The sagging perimeter play meant that several of Wyoming's guards were left open, but they weren't able to convert. The Cowboys shot 38.6 percent from field goal range and 20 percent from the 3-point line, compared with UNM's 42 percent field goal and 30 percent 3-point effort. The Lobos also picked up 27 points from the free throw line, while the Cowboys' scored 17.
"Any time you get Wyoming to shoot 20 of their 57 shots from 3, that's good because they are inconsistent from the perimeter and we had to give something up," Fraschilla said. "And, I thought we rebounded the ball better tonight than we have in the past."
Douglas extended his hot shooting streak, racking up 28 against the Cowboys to go with 30 against Colorado State University Saturday night. Carey and Chatfield chipped in 10 points apiece Monday, while Dennehy scored eight.
Wyoming guard Jason Straight finished with 15, eight of which came in the final two minutes after the game was largely out of reach. Bailey added 12 and center Uche Nsonwu-Amadi finished with 11 for the Cowboys.
The game opened with a quick bucket inside by Dennehy, but the Lobos then suffered a nine-minute drought. The Cowboys went on a 9-1 run, while UNM posted one-for-15 shooting from the perimeter. Decisive drives to the basket by Carey for six points and three 3-pointers by Douglas put the Lobos on top heading into the locker room.
Despite a close second half, the Lobos never trailed by more than two points and led by as many 12.
"The way we see it, anybody in this conference can be beat," Douglas said. "With Utah, we came close. With Wyoming we came close last time and this time we kind of got them. And it's a big way to go into the Mountain West Conference Tournament, but if you look, every night everyone's winning by one point or going into overtime. It's just a pretty even conference."
