by Tony Niklinski
Daily Lobo
The debut of Lobos head coach Ritchie McKay went well, as the men's basketball team defeated the EA Sports West All-Stars 97-86 on Friday at The Pit.
The victory will not go down as a "W" in the win column because the contest was only an exhibition game.
Javin Tindall, a 5-foot-11-inch, point guard transfer from Redlands Community College scored 21 points including five-of-eight from behind the three-point line. He also dished out three assists and grabbed six boards. Impressive considering it was his first game playing in The Pit.
The Lobos did an excellent job of executing their new motion offense. From start to finish they worked hard by setting great picks, which in turn opened up opportunities for teammates to knockdown shots. And that's exactly what they did. As a team, the Lobos shot 53 percent from the field, including 13 for 28 from beyond the three-point line.
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Senior guard Senque Carey finished the night with a team-high 24 points, on seven-of-12 shooting.
"The offense flows, everyone gets open shots," Carey said.
Ruben Douglas the Lobos only player selected to the Mountain West Conference preseason all-conference team scored 18 points. The senior guard shot 44 percent from the field including three-of-six from long distance and pulled down six boards to go along with four assists and two steals.
UNM had no problem finding the open man, but it did have a little trouble with turning the ball over. The Lobos committed 17 turnovers, which turned into 19 points for the EA Sports West All-Stars.
"We need to cut down on turnovers," Tindall said.
Sports magazines have predicted the Lobos to finish in the bottom half of the conference, but if they can run the motion offense to perfection game in and game out, a lot of critics will be eating their words come tournament time in March.
Next week, the Lobos play host to the EA Sports Southwest All-Stars in The Pit. The game starts at 7:05 pm.
This will be their final game before UNM begins its regular season against the University of California at Berkeley on Nov. 23 in The Pit.
