LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Eight days removed from their last meeting, the UNM men’s basketball team and Air Force met again.
And nothing changed.
The No. 2 Lobos beat the seventh-seeded Falcons for the third time this season — this time 79-64 in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament on Thursday night at the Thomas & Mack Center. They face UNLV today in the semifinals at 9:30 p.m.
“We match up well with Air Force,” sophomore guard Kendall Williams said. “Coming to a neutral site, they fought us all the way through. Luckily, we had a couple of players make plays.”
The bench made some of the biggest ones.
Sophomore guard Demetrius Walker led the Lobos with 19 points, as UNM’s bench outscored Air Force’s 32-19.
“Our bench (has) been doing it all year,” Williams said. “So tonight was (Walker’s) night.”
Walker set a career-high in points, making 5 of 6 field goals, including three 3-pointers.
“I just wanted to come in and provide a spark, whether that’s offensively or defensively,” Walker said. “Tonight was offensively.”
Early on, Air Force was determined to redeem its two 30-plus-point blowout losses to UNM earlier in the season.
Mike Fitzgerald’s layup, off a Shawn Hempsey no-look pass with 12:36 left in the first half, gave the Falcons a 12-11 lead.
The lead was short-lived after Williams hit a 3-pointer to put the Lobos up 14-12 and brought most of the fans in attendance to their feet.
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The Falcons stuck around and regained the lead, going up 15-14, but it was their last lead.
Walker’s 3-pointer with 10:01 left in the half sparked a 15-0 run spanning fewer than three minutes and putting the Lobos up 29-15.
Walker scored 11 of the Lobos’ 15 points in that stretch, giving UNM a 45-31 edge at the break.
In the second half, the Falcons pushed back with a 10-2 run capped by Kyle Green’s jumper that cut the Lobos’ lead to 69-60 with 4:42 left.
But just like the in the first half, Walker hit a 3-pointer to keep the Lobos in front.
“When you’re in this part of the season, it’s about win and advance,” head coach Steve Alford said. “I thought our guys did a good job. Every time Air Force made a run at us, we seemed to get a basket.”
The Falcons’ top gun Michael Lyons scored 17 points on 4-of-14 shooting, after being held to 15 combined points in the teams’ first two meetings. But it wasn’t enough.
Senior forward Drew Gordon lead a quartet of Lobos in double figures with 15 points. Sophomore Tony Snell added 10, Walker had 19 and Williams chipped in 13.
UNM scored 31 of its 79 points from the free-throw line, a school record.
“We haven’t been great doing that,” Alford said. “We’ve started emphasizing a little bit more just because we feel like those are some free points you need to get to.”
Men’s Basketball vs. UNLV
Today 9:30PM
Las Vegas, NEV.
