by Matt Kuzila
Daily Lobo
The Lobos suffered a major loss in their convincing 89-75 win over the Wyoming Cowboys during the Mountain West Conference opener.
With six minutes left in the first half, fans and teammates watched as UNM's most heralded player limped off Bob King Court and headed to the locker room.
Danny Granger, the Lobos' 6-foot-8-inch senior who leads the team in scoring and rebounding and is first in the conference in steals, left the game with the Lobos dominating on both sides of the ball and nursing a double-digit lead.
After the game, head coach Ritchie McKay said Granger was hurt while trying to block a shot. He would not go into details. NCAA rules prohibit the release of injury information without the player's permission.
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The Lobos were able to overcome the loss with a total team effort.
"When your key player is out, you've got to step up," said forward David Chiotti. "We knew we were still a good team and could still win."
The Cowboys had a size advantage. Seven-footer Alex Dunn started at center, and each player had a height advantage over his Lobo counterpart on the front line.
The Lobos came out of the gate quickly, hitting six of their first eight shots.
Granger started hot, hitting a baseline jumper to give the Lobos the early lead. After a transition three by Devries, point guard Kris Collins got into the open court and hit a lay-up despite being fouled on the play. He missed the subsequent free throw, but Granger was there for the put-back off an offensive rebound. A 15-4 run built a lead that held the entire contest.
The highlight of the fast-paced first half came when freshman Bambale Osby got a defensive rebound and did his best impression of the Michael Vick experience, throwing a deep bomb to Tony Danridge for a huge two-handed slam.
This got The Pit crowd of more than 17,000 people on its feet and gave the Lobos a 19-point lead.
The second half started with Granger still in the locker room. Wyoming, using its size advantage, cut the lead to eight and had the momentum as Chiotti went to the bench with his fourth personal foul.
But the Lobos fought back. With Granger watching from the end of the bench in sweats, they rebuilt their lead with timely scoring from Tony Dandridge and Alfred Neale and scrappy play off the bench by little-used guard Blake Harden.
"When Danny went out and they cut the lead down, I was as proud of a team as I've ever been," McKay said. "They didn't hang their heads."
Troy Devries led six Lobos in double figures with 15 points. Chiotti had 14 and Collins chipped in with 13. Dandridge tied his career-high with 10 points on 5-for-6 shooting.
Dunn had 19 points and 12 rebounds for the Cowboys, and Jay Straight was the top scorer in the game, with 20.
Granger had 12 points, three blocks and two rebounds in his 12 minutes of action.
