TCU pressure forces 2nd loss

The No. 18 men’s basketball team lost its second straight game on Saturday and gave up a season-high 83 points.

After losing to Colorado State last Tuesday, the Lobos lost to Texas Christian University (17-11) 83-64. Earlier in the year, the Lobos also lost back-to-back games in MWC play to University of Nevada-Las Vegas and San Diego State.

CSU and TCU haven’t lost at home in the MWC this season, and head coach Steve Alford said the two-game road trip really took a lot out of his players.

“It was a tough road trip,” Alford told GoLobos.com. “Tonight, in the second half in particular, we were very poor defensively. Our guys are frustrated. We’re (coaches) frustrated. We have to get home.”

The loss takes UNM to 22-6 and 8-4 in the MWC. After last week’s back-to-back wins against ranked opponents, the Lobos looked to have the conference regular season championship wrapped up, but now there is a three way tie for first place with UNLV and SDSU.

Alford sat usual starters freshman guard Hugh Greenwood and sophomore guard Kendall Williams. Their absence showed as TCU took an early 13-4 lead.

UNM had eight turnovers in the first 10 minutes, but the Lobos were able to rally back and go into halftime with the scores tied at 38.

The Lobos turned over the ball 16 times in the game, and Alford said TCU put his team under a lot of pressure, which forced the turnovers.

“I thought they did a really good job with their pressure, and we didn’t handle it well,” Alford said. “They scored a lot on transition play and they do that a lot in this building.”

UNM continued to keep the game close in the second half, but with 13:31 left and the scores tied at 48, TCU went on a 16-3 run to effectively end the game for the Lobos.

Alford said the second half lapse was the worst he had seen all season, but he credited TCU with being a very good team at home.
“We played about as poorly in the second half as we have played all year,” Alford said. “But our league is hard. We’ve been trying to tell people that.”

TCU was 11-25 from 3-point range and shot more than 45 percent for the game. The Lobos only made four of their 17 3-point attempts, but shot almost 42 percent from the floor.

Senior forward A.J. Hardeman led UNM with 15 points and six rebounds. Williams was the only other player in double figures with 10 points.