Move over Barnum and Bailey. There's a new two-man circus in town.
The UNM men's basketball duo of Danny Granger and David Chiotti put on a show in the Lobos' 91-72 rout of the Brigham Young Cougars at The Pit.
BYU didn't deal much with those two players when the Cougars beat UNM 68-53 in Provo, Utah, on Jan. 24. Granger was missing his third game in a row after having knee surgery. Chiotti played only 11 minutes due to a hip flexor that forced him to the sidelines for the rest of the game.
But this time around, Granger and Chiotti put up a combined 36 points, with 20 and 16 respectively.
That point total would have been 38 had a monster dunk by Chiotti gone in. He deftly sliced his way between two defenders and slammed the ball into the hoop, but it got twisted in the net and catapulted back out.
"It wasn't a big deal," Chiotti said about the missed attempt that would have put the Lobos up 41-26 with 5:10 remaining in the first half. "It wasn't like Danny's little girly dunk. I'd rather miss it trying to dunk hard than do a weak dunk and try to slap the glass to make up for the weak dunk."
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Granger's slap-happy antics earned him a technical foul.
That point total also came without either of the two playing much of the second half because of a consistent 20-point UNM lead. Granger logged 25 minutes, while Chiotti clocked in 26.
The duo's contribution was not just in points scored and rebounds snagged. Just ask Alfred Neale what freed him up to drop 15 points on the Cougars.
"It gives us a lot of opportunities," Neale said. "Most opponents are so focused on them that it opens up the other three guards, especially for me, because my man usually sinks in to help."
How free were Neale and fellow guard Troy DeVries on the perimeter during those defensive sink-ins?
Neale hit 3-of-4 uncontested shots from the three-point line, while DeVries nailed 5-of-6 wide-open threes.
"Danny draws a lot of attention, and so when he does that, it's pretty much (a pass) from the inside out and a done deal," Neale said.
That done deal sealed a 13-of-19 shooting performance for the Lobos from downtown. At a sizzling 68.4 percent, it was the fourth-best shooting percentage UNM has ever had in a game from behind the three-point arc.
From the start of the game, the Cougars could have pulled up seats and busted out the cotton candy for the show.
BYU's only hope to defend an initial seven-point onslaught - five from Granger, and two from Chiotti - was to call a timeout down 7-0 after only 1:20 had passed in the game.
Maybe BYU head coach Steve Cleveland just wanted to let his players know that good seats for the circus always come at a price.
