by David J. Chavez
Daily Lobo
Lobo guard J.R. Giddens flexed his muscles after a powerful second-half dunk and so did the UNM men's basketball team in a blowout win over Colorado on Tuesday.
The Lobos improved to 3-0, with a 106-65 victory over the Buffaloes.
UNM head coach Ritchie McKay said the Lobos are playing their way back to national recognition.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
"It's a good statement for hopefully our return back to being one of the regional powers, if not being nationally ranked one day," he said.
Giddens got off to a sluggish start but found a rhythm as the night went on. He hit shots from every part of the court, which led him to a career-high 25 points.
Giddens outplayed Colorado's Richard Roby, a preseason candidate for the John R. Wooden Award All-American Team and All-Big 12 team.
Giddens said the team put the critics' comments to rest with its performance against Colorado.
"I took it personal from the jump when I woke up this morning," he said. "He (Roby) was on the front cover. Then I open it up, and he's on the inside cover, too. This is supposed to be my city."
Giddens said Roby and the rest of Colorado were getting too much hype.
"He's a good player," Giddens said. "They say he's better than me, and they say his team is better than my team. And we went out there and showed that we were the better team tonight, and we executed."
UNM had to crawl its way back early when it went down by seven points three minutes into the game. The Lobos captured the lead at 15-14 with 11:46 in the first half from two free throws by Jeffrey Henfield.
With Giddens not taking over offensively early in the game, the bench stepped in and scored 25 points in the first half.
Daniel Faris, Chad Toppert and Ryan Kersten combined for 23 first-half bench points.
Toppert hit a trio of 3-pointers, including back-to-back deep shots to put the Lobos up 36-25 with 5:01 left in the first half.
Giddens found his rhythm midway through the first half, helping UNM to a 47-34 halftime lead.
The Lobos then came out of the locker room in the second half and went on an offensive rampage.
Giddens led the way by slashing to the basket and finding open jumpers. He also contributed on the defensive end, grabbing a steal that led to a thunderous dunk that put the Lobos up 62-39 with 12:53 left in the game.
Despite the stats, Giddens can play a lot better, McKay said.
"Your going to laugh at me when I say this, but J.R. just played average," he said. "He's a tremendous player, and he did a great job. And if you haven't seen his maturity, you probably haven't followed his career long enough."
Giddens, a transfer from Kansas, is done talking about his
old school.
"Kansas what? I don't what you're talking about," he said, grinning. "I'm going to click my heels twice, because I'm not in Kansas anymore."
Faris had his best game as a Lobo, recording career highs of 14 points and eight rebounds. He came off the bench at the 16:44 mark in the first half and pounded Colorado inside for the rest of the night.
Faris said practicing against his teammates has made him the player he is.
"I just go out there, and I play hard," he said. "I got to play against Aaron Johnson every day last year and David Chiotti. Those are two all-conference posts. I just want to get in there, get defensive rebounds and play good D. Just lock up on D, because if we play good defense, our offense is going to come around."
