by Andre van der Merwe
Daily Lobo
It was a tale of two halves for the UNM men's basketball team Saturday. The second was one the Lobos might want to forget.
The Lobos (16-11 overall, 7-7 Mountain West Conference) fell to conference leader San Diego State University (19-8, 12-3) 73-66 at The Pit, despite being tied at 31 at halftime.
"We let it get away from us in the second half," UNM head coach Ritchie McKay said. "Our discipline, our execution was poor."
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The Lobos struggled to get a handle on SDSU's Brandon Heath, who led all scorers with 32 points. Two other Aztecs, Mohamed Abukar and Marcus Slaughter, made it to double figures against the Lobos with 15 points and 11 points respectively.
Lobo senior post David Chiotti said it was UNM's inability to get back to defend the Aztecs that hurt the Lobos the most.
"It came down to our defense that lost us this game," Chiotti said. "They just have a lot of tremendous scorers, and a lot of people who can put the ball in the basket."
McKay agreed with Chiotti that UNM's lack of defensive speed was a cause for the Lobos' problems Saturday.
"They made a lot of shots that we didn't get there quickly enough to take away their freedom," McKay said.
The Aztecs outscored UNM in fast-break points 17-6. The Lobos shined, however, when their big men stepped up and took charge.
UNM grabbed a six-point lead at the 12:51 mark of the first half when junior transfer Joel Box led the charge with his aggressive play down low. Box led the team in scoring with 17 points and added 13 rebounds, three steals, and two blocks.
Another big man from the Lobos who kept the team in the game was junior walk-on Kellen Walter, who hit four three-pointers, all of which came when the Aztecs were starting to pull away.
However, Chiotti said the Lobos let SDSU's top scorers do too much damage for UNM to pull out a victory.
"For us to win, we are going to have to keep SDSU down," he said. "You know we want the game kind of in the 60s. We did a good job of keeping them below their average, but when you let Heath go off for 32, it's hard to beat them."
Chiotti said he liked the team's effort, but the Lobos need better team chemistry in the future.
"I think we did a good job overall," Chiotti said. "I don't think we played together, or as well as we could. If we want to beat a team like that, it's going to come down to our defensive end."
Even though the game didn't go as planned, Chiotti said the possibilities are endless come March.
"Anything can happen around tournament time," he said. "You know that's why they call it March Madness. And when it's tournament time, just leave everything out on the court."
