Chances are, when UNM's star guard has more fouls than points, the Lobos lose, right?
That wasn't the case on Thursday night. UNM coasted over Grambling State 96-50 at The Pit.
Despite scoring just 3 points - and committing four fouls - Tony Danridge dished out a career-high eight assists. Other Lobos paced UNM's point production, as six players scored in double figures. Senior Daniel Faris led the team with 18, and the Lobos pile drove the Tigers.
"It was just a night where it didn't click for Tony," head coach Steve Alford said. "He missed some shots he normally makes; he missed his foul shots. If he made his foul shots, I think he would've been close to 10 points. To his credit, he hit the open man."
Danridge entered the night as the Lobos' leading scorer on the season, averaging 19.5 points per game.
"Tony's going to have a game like (Thursday's) maybe one out of every 30 games," Faris said. "But Tony looked like Jason Kidd out there tonight."
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By the time the second half tipped off, UNM was firmly in control 42-15. The Lobos went on a 31-10 first-half tear covering 11:18. Faris put the finishing touches on the run with an emphatic dunk to put UNM up 36-12 with 6:14 left in the first half.
"Daniel can be somebody inside that gives us a presence," Alford said. Faris' resurgence in the paint comes four days after UNM's 82-75 loss at Creighton, where Faris shot only twice and had 1 point.
And it was a case of Faris' inside game opening things up for UNM's perimeter players.
The Tigers never made it a contest, drowning amid a sea of 3-pointers from the Lobos. UNM was 12-25 from behind the arc, with a combined nine treys coming from Roman Martinez, Dairese Gary and Chad Toppert. Freshman Phillip McDonald, who was 2-for-4 from deep, contributed 15 points and snagged 10 rebounds.
"We dominated the glass," Alford said. "We did a lot of good things. The 25 assists to eight turnovers - we took care of the ball.
And the lead - Grambling State never led once, sputtering and mustering only 32 points in the second half. To put things in perspective, the Lobo bench outscored the Tigers. The Tigers had only 10 assists while coughing up the ball 12 times and shooting an anemic 26 percent from the field.
The Lobos opened up the second half with another big run, this time a 25-11 run to increase their lead to 77-29 with 10:30 left in the game.
Point guard Nate Garth headed the operation, handing out two assists in a 42-second spurt - one after he pick-pocketed Grambling State's Ariece Perkins that lead to a rim-rattling dunk by A.J. Hardeman. Garth had five assists for the game.
The only unsettling moment in the game came when Gary went down hard after colliding with a mob of Grambling State players in the paint.
"I think he's OK," Alford said. "As I told him, he's got to learn to - if you're going to go to the basket - you have to learn to go to the basket as a point guard, not a fullback trying to get a first down."
Men's basketball vs. UCF
Saturday, 7 p.m.
The Pit
