In a sense, what Kendall Wallace did to Steve Alford’s Lobos was poetic justice.
Alford, renowned in his heyday for his artistic 3-point stroke, forced teams to extend their man-to-man defenses and do away with zones.
This time it was Wallace, salting the Lobos’ wounds by peppering in a barrage of 3-pointers.
For about 30 minutes, it was a Mountain West Conference edge-of-your-seat cliff-hanger.
Eventually, Round 1 went to visiting UNLV, 74-62, likely toppling the UNM men’s basketball team from its top-25 perch.
The Lobos, by and large, did that by themselves.
Contrary to popular belief, UNM isn’t 0-2 in the MWC because of a lack of offensive production — though that unquestionably had something to do with it.
Yes, the Lobos shot 36 percent from the floor (18-of-50), including 4-of-18 from 3-point land. Furthermore, they’ve been tepid from the field in their last two losses. However, on Saturday, their domination on the boards — 41-30 — and the abundance of free throws they attempted — 31 — should have offset that.
For all intents and purposes, what plagued the Lobos most was their most nondescript defensive performance this season. Inevitably, UNM never got the decisive stop they needed, snapping a 19-game home winning streak.
Much of UNM’s success last season was predicated on protecting the home turf, which the Lobos did by playing stifling defense.
Over the course of last year’s conference season, UNM, 8-0 at home, held four league foes to season lows in scoring — BYU, Colorado State, Wyoming and San Diego State — and held conference opponents to an average of 59.1 point per contest.
It’s not that the Lobos didn’t defend on Saturday. It’s that they didn’t guard the Rebels’ marksman Wallace, never so much as attempted to forcefully revoke his license to shoot. And, boy, did he torch the Lobos like an improperly held Roman candle. Try 7-of-10 from beyond the arc.
What’s more, the Lobos never accounted for Wallace in transition, where he stockpiled a majority of his 21 points.
Time and time again, he’d spot up on the 3-point line and wait for one of his teammates to penetrate the lane, only to kick out to him on the wing or in the corner.
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Following a four-point burst by Darington Hobson, which brought the Lobos within a deuce of tying, the Lobos lost track of Wallace, and he buried a three to boost Las Vegas’ lead to 45-40 with 13:53 to go in the game.
Back came Hobson and the Lobos, who eventually took a 46-45 lead.
But the seemingly kerosene-dipped Wallace provided the Rebels with insurance, canning back-to-back 3s a little more than a minute apart. Those all but threw the kibosh inUNM’s comeback.
“Obviously, he got on fire,” Alford said. “We tried to do a lot of different things. They did a good job of finding him, and then he made shots. (The) scouting report was, ‘Make him dribble.’ He’s a 3-point shooter. He shot 10 shots, and they were all 3s. Wallace really got away from us in the second half.”
Still, lethal as he was beyond the arc, Wallace wasn’t — and isn’t — the type to beat his defender one-on-one, off-the-dribble. Knowing this, amazingly, the Lobos never pressed up on him or forced him to put the ball on the deck.
Roman Martinez faulted the Lobos’ lack of recognition to each of the Rebels players’ skill sets, specifically Wallace’s.
“We need to be able to understand who the guys that can shoot (are) — guys that are drivers,” he said. “They ran a couple plays for him where he hit big shots, and we didn’t respond in any way. That’s unfortunate. He was killing us. Every 3 he shot was going in. It felt like everything off his hand was going in.”
In other words, it starts and ends with defense. Not that you need to remind Martinez.
“There’s no excuses for us,” he said. “It’s important for us to get those big stops — whether it’s me, Dairese (Gary) or Darington. We didn’t get any.”
