The Pit poltergeist continued to haunt Wyoming's Brandon Ewing on Tuesday.
It got to the point where it didn't matter who covered Ewing. His shadow probably could've gotten the job done.
And whatever shooting syndrome the senior contracted, he infected his Wyoming teammates with it, too. The UNM men's basketball team smashed the Pokes, 86-57.
The Cowboys couldn't shoot.
"We got the ball in the post six times, and we turned it over in the paint," Wyoming's Heath Schroyer said.
Ewing entered the night as the Mountain West Conference's leading scorer at 18.2 points per game. From the field, Ewing was 1-of-5 until hitting three meaningless treys in garbage time. Collectively, Wyoming shot 33 percent from the field.
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Section 26 didn't have any compassion for the embattled star.
"Ewing," they chanted, holding up a whiteboard to remind him of his shooting woes.
In his three previous visits to The Pit, Ewing helped humanize rims and make us believe that that clanking piece of iron has feelings. He was a combined 4-of-31 from the field and had a total of 13 points.
Nothing changed.
On Tuesday, Wyoming's point guard looked more like Patrick Ewing trying to shoot 3-pointers. Not pretty. He finished his career at The Pit 8-of-41 but managed to double his point output to 26.
Nobody, then, could blame him for trying to establish a bit of rhythm early. He just went about it the wrong way.
A little antsy, Ewing chose to take a distant 3-pointer in the first half early in the shot clock.
It didn't work - for him or Wyoming.
While the baskets seemed to be padlocked for the Pokes, to Chad Toppert and the Lobos, the rims looked anything but uninviting. Toppert buried five treys in the first half - four during a 14-2 run that gave UNM a 29-14 advantage. In one half, Toppert compiled two more points than Ewing had in three games.
"There's not too many guys in the country better at busting zones than Chad," head coach Steve Alford said.
Just one of those nights.
Wyoming came in boasting four players who were averaging in double-figures in Ewing, Afam Muojeke (15.6), Tyson Johnson (15.5) and Sean Ogirri (14.7). Three put up more than 10 on Tuesday. But the Lobos had four players doing the same in Danridge (13.2), Faris (11.8), Toppert (10.9) and Martinez (10.4).
And it was the four Lobos spreading the wealth.
Toppert finished with 17 points. Roman Martinez kicked in 15, while Tony Danridge and Daniel Faris had 11 apiece. Faris bagged eight rebounds, as well.
The onslaught continued. The Lobos didn't quite equal last year's 45-point whooping. Nonetheless, Tuesday's blowout was savage and unrelenting.
A 21-point halftime lead grew to 32 at one point.
The Cowboys' spirit was taken out of the building on a gurney at halftime. The Pokes seemed only interested in finishing the game and heading home.
The Pokes were also ranked second in the MWC in scoring at 79.3 points a game. UNM held them to a season-low 57.
Despite a chippy contest, both teams kept level heads. They didn't want an incident similar to the one in 2006 to break out.
That year, Ewing was involved in an altercation with former Lobo Jamaal Smith. A bench-clearing brawl ensued ? Smith and Ewing were ejected.
"You see Faris down there tussling with the big dudes," Dairese Gary said. "If you don't play with emotion, you shouldn't play with basketball. Some tempers might get out of control. Just the type of player Ewing is - he's the type; he does talk. It's not going to make you want to fight or anything."
Eight-of-41 in four trips for Ewing, and Gary said he was still verbally sparring.
"It really made me laugh," Gary said.
