The Lobo men's basketball team let a possible upset slip right from its grasp Saturday afternoon in The Pit, losing to Texas Tech 67-58.
After Javin Tindall made one of two free throws, cutting the Lobos' deficit to 61-58 with 1:49 remaining, UNM self-destructed. The Lobos gave up a Tech jumper off an offensive rebound, and then gave up back-to-back steals resulting in two break-away layups, sealing the deal for the Red Raiders (6-2).
"We didn't make shots when we had to," McKay said. "We didn't get any of those big plays down the stretch and they did."
The Lobos (2-3) came out of the gates smoking in the first half. UNM hit three quick 3-pointers, building a 9-2 advantage four minutes into the game. After exchanging buckets, Tindall exploded for seven unanswered points, giving the Lobos their biggest lead of the game at 18-8.
Tindall tied a career-best in scoring, finishing the game with 27 points, six assists and no turnovers.
"I'm not sure a guard that's expected to score can play any better than Tindall did," Texas Tech head coach Bobby Knight said. "It wasn't just what he did from a scoring standpoint, but when the kid had the ball in his hands that much, scores that well and has six assists and no turnovers, that is a hell of a statistic for a kid to have."
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UNM then had one of its characteristic middle-of-the-half slumps. Over the next five minutes, the Raiders went on an 11-2 run, chopping the UNM lead to 20-19 with 5:47 remaining in the half.
After a Lenny Miles three and a break, away one-handed dunk by David Chiotti, the Lobos regained an eight-point advantage. UNM went into the locker room with a 32-29 halftime lead.
The second half was a back-and-forth battle. A key element of the second half came with 10:30 remaining and the score even at 47. Neither team scored for four minutes. During the span, the Lobos had four offensive rebounds on the same possession, keeping the ball for more than two minutes.
Their effort was to no avail, as they failed to score. The possession seemed to take all the life out of the UNM offense. Two Tindall threes, one free throw and two inside buckets by Chiotti were the only scores the Lobos would have in the final five and a half minutes.
The Lobos, in a 2-3 zone defensive set for the entire game, kept Tech's explosive offense out of sync. The Lobos' zone held Tech's superstar Andre Emmett to only 12 points on four of 11 shooting, well below his 24 ppg average.
The 2-3 zone collapsed the inside, leaving the perimeter open for the taking.
"Let's look at the game a little bit," Knight said. "New Mexico shoots really well to start the game. We shoot very poorly, one out of 10. If New Mexico doesn't shoot quite as well and if we shoot well, then they're not in a zone and now it's a totally different game to play."
While Tech only shot four of 17 from behind the arc, the zone-killer was Robert Tomaszek's 18-foot perimeter jumper.
In the second half, time and again, Tomaszek connected from the right wing. Of his 18 total points, 12 of those came from the same spot on the floor, including his shot with 1:13 left in the game to give Tech a five-point cushion. Tomaszek finished the game nine for 11 shooting.
