by Andre van der Merwe
Daily Lobo
The UNM men's basketball team had a chance to topple No. 13 Air Force on Saturday at The Pit.
Too bad for the Lobos. They lost their focus in the 60-51 defeat, head coach Ritchie McKay said.
"I thought Air Force did a better job than we did of executing in the last six minutes of the game," he said.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
After giving up a 10-point lead in the first half, UNM had a four-point lead in the second.
However, the Falcons pulled away with 6:30 left in the game, and the Lobos' inept offense led to the downfall.
With both teams shooting about 30 percent from the field in the first half, the Falcons changed their game plan and with every possession started driving the ball .
McKay said he didn't have an answer for the Falcons' driving ability, which led to 22 points in the paint for Air Force.
"They just drove it on everyone," he said. "You can look at the tape. It was our best athletes that they were driving on, as well. They drove it
every time, and for some reason, we couldn't contain it."
With eight minutes left in the game, the Lobos were up 38-36 after junior J.R. Giddens nailed two free throws. The Falcons answered back with a 7-0 run capped by a Dan Nwaelele 3-pointer with six minutes left.
Air Force guard Tim Anderson and Nwaelele scored a game-high 17 points each, while forward Jacob Burtschi added 15 points.
The Falcons' defense made up for the offensive struggles and held the Lobos' offense to 25 points below its average.
Giddens was the only player on UNM to score in double figures, finishing with 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting.
Junior guard Darren Prentice led the team in rebounds and assists, with six and seven, respectively. Both were career highs.
Prentice said the team fell apart in the closing minutes.
"We didn't hit adversity until the last four or five minutes of the game," he said. "We kind of went our own way instead of staying together. If we would have stayed together, things could have happened differently. We really weren't a cohesive team down the stretch."
The Air Force offense didn't fare much better than the Lobos, as the Falcons shot just 41 percent from the field compared to the Lobos' 32 percent.
Another difference came as the Falcons scored late, while UNM clanked shots off the rim when it mattered most.
The Lobos scored just one field goal in the final three minutes of the first half and went nearly two and a half minutes without a score in the final three minutes of the game.
McKay said the Lobos let an opportunity slip away.
"You've got a chance to beat the 13th-best team in the country on your home floor, and you're playing well for 30 minutes, and the crowd's in the game, and we didn't execute," he said. "That's what elite teams do."
Men's basketball at BYU
Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Provo, Utah
