Colorado State was like glass at The Pit - Plexiglas. The Rams didn't bend or break easily, even though the UNM men's basketball team (13-8 overall, 4-2 in the MWC) ultimately earned a 68-50 victory.
The key word here would be earned.
Rams head coach Tim Miles made sure of it. He wasn't about to endure another 91-51 laugher. Every time one of his players made a mistake - it didn't matter who it was - he made certain they were aware of it. After a bucket by Tony Danridge put UNM up 9-4 at the 13:50 mark in the first half, Miles signaled for timeout and used most of it to pound on some eardrums.
"Because we are young, I think it's important to stay on them," Miles said. "We really don't have a vocal leader on the court. So, it's your job as a coach. They need to feel the intensity and the energy coming from somewhere."
What would have broken the Rams' spirit last season didn't seem to rattle them this time, not even 11 first-half turnovers, their second lowest first-half point total, 19, or being without leading scorer Marcus Walker.
"(Playing without Walker) has given other guys confidence," Miles said. "Jesse Carter's been a guy that's made plays for us. And he's a true freshman. That development and opportunity for Jesse is going to pay off."
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Carter finished with 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting. He was the only Ram in double figures.
By intermission the Lobos were up 50-24 last year. Not this time. In fact, the Lobos only held a five point lead and were held to their lowest first-half point total, 24, all season. And the Rams did what Miles said CSU needed to do - "hang around."
But even Plexiglas, if battered enough, has a giving point. The Rams' came within the first few minutes of the second half.
"It wasn't a crazy halftime," head coach Steve Alford said. "It was about are we going to mature as a basketball team when we had a half where we couldn't make a basket."
It was the quickest 20-minute maturation process.
An 11-3 burst helped UNM surge ahead 37-24 with 15:40 remaining. CSU crawled back to within seven, 40-33, but that was all she wrote.
At one point in the first half, CSU briefly led 19-17. That was the last one CSU had.
Miles, who was quoted as saying, "I don't think we should beat our chests in moral victory," after an 83-74 loss to Wyoming last Wednesday, was just as cynical on Wednesday.
"The No. 1 goal in our game plan was not to turn it over," Miles said. "You do it to yourself. You don't go commit turnovers in The Pit and win unless you do something spectacular."
The 18 point margin could have been less had the Rams not chucked the ball to their opponents 20 times. Because of those 20 turnovers, CSU got up 11 fewer shots than the Lobos, thereby canceling out the Rams' 61.1 shooting percentage in the second half.
"If we could get shots at the rim at times we would have been OK," Miles said.
UNM held its third straight opponent to its lowest season total in The Pit. The Lobos also got 18 points from Chad Toppert, 16 from Danridge and 14 from Daniel Faris.
Fifteen of Toppert's 18 came in the second half, after he was just 1-of-6 in the first half.
"As a shooter, if you block out the shots that you miss and you just keep looking forward to the next shot, that's the mindset that you have to have," he said.
