LAS VEGAS — Feb. 20 was supposed to serve as a memory — a day the UNM men’s basketball team could look back on late in the postseason to summon energy.
The Lobos ended up reliving that same day in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament, when they faced Air Force.
For the second time this season, the Falcons nearly upset UNM. But for the 29th time this season, the Lobos found a way to win, finishing off the Falcons 75-69 at the Thomas & Mack Center on Thursday, behind another double-double from Darington Hobson and 20 points from Dairese Gary.
“I think (Air Force head coach) Jeff (Reynolds), in the last two to three weeks, has done more with his team than anybody in the league,” Lobo head coach Steve Alford said. “You’ve seen it coming. They have really played hard.”
For a team that only managed to get its 10th win Wednesday (the Lobos hit the 10-win mark in early December), Air Force played better than its No. 9 ranking suggested.
The will-not-go-gently-into-that-good-night attitude clearly frustrated the Lobos. Hobson, who had a game-high 28 points and 15 rebounds, threw his mouth piece, yelled at teammates and ended by getting a technical in the second half.
“It cost us two points during the game,” Hobson said. “I apologize for that. But, you know, that is something I still have to work on. I’m an emotional player.”
It wasn’t just Hobson. Alford took out sixth-man Will Brown when he became agitated after a foul call.
The frustration was understandable. Air Force — a 150-to-1 long shot to win the tournament and 16.5 point underdogs in Thursday’s game — had the nationally ranked No. 8 team in the nation on the run.
With four minutes left in the game, Air Force pulled within three points, 61-58.
“Sometimes you have to give credit to your opponent,” Alford said. “We are 29-3. We broke every Lobo record there is to break. We now have more wins than any Lobo team in the history of the school, and if you ask me what our strength is — we work really hard.”
But so did Air Force. Though the Lobos led for 39 minutes of the game, the Falcons constantly squeezed that lead to single digits.
UNM’s second-largest lead of the night came with three minutes left in the first half, when the Lobos shot up 31-22.
But looking to go into halftime with a double-digit cushion, the Lobos watched a running 3-pointer drop in at the buzzer by Air Force guard Evan Washington, cutting the lead to seven.
That momentum carried over to the second half. The Falcons slowly chiseled away at the Lobos, pulling to 48-47 with 12:48 left in the game.
“(To play with us) you have to match that kind of work ethic,” Alford said. “The two games we have played in the last (19) days against Air Force, they have matched that. That is a credit to their staff. That is a credit to their young team and a lesson that when you play that hard, good things happen.”
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Good things did happen.
Air Force outshot and outscored the Lobos from the field, shooting 27-of-50 (54 percent) and 46 percent from beyond the arc. The Lobos shot 46 percent from the field and 28 percent from outside.
But free throws were the deciding factor down the stretch.
The Lobos shot 25-of-30 from the line, and their last 13 points came from the charity stripe. And finally, an air ball from Roman Martinez acted as an alley-oop pass to Hobson, which boosted the Lobo lead to 10 points.
“I haven’t experienced that in my career, winning in the first round,” Martinez said. “It’s just a great feeling to know that we could win the tournament, because we haven’t won one yet. But it’s a battle. Every team in this league wants to go to that tournament.”
