For the third time in four years, the men’s basketball team is the Mountain West regular-season champion.
The Lobos beat Boise State 76-61 on senior day, in front of a sold out Pit.
“I am very, very proud of (the players) because they had a lot of pressure on them, dating all the way back to October,” head coach Steve Alford said. “I think this is the first time in five years that the team who was picked to win it actually won it.”
Both San Diego State and UNM finished with identical 10-4 record in the MWC and will share the MWC regular-season title.
SDSU holds the tiebreaker and will take the No. 1 seed into the MWC tournament next week. The Lobos will be the No. 2 seed and will take on No. 7 Air Force in the first game.
Senior forward Drew Gordon won his first conference title of his career in his last game as a Lobo.
He put up 30 points and 12 rebounds, giving him his 15th double-double this season.
“He has gone to a whole other level in the past week from a points standpoint,” Alford said.
Gordon scored on 11-of-15 shooting and made his only 3-pointer of his career.
Down 52-48 with 8:20 left in the game, the Lobos finished on a 28-9 run, scoring on 13 of their last 15 possessions.
One of those buckets came from junior guard Tony Snell after a tough night on offense. His 3-pointer with 4:54 left in the second half in a 58-56 game put the Lobos up five — and the Broncos never responded.
“The 3-pointer he made was a huge one,” Alford said. “He missed his first six and he kept shooting, which is what we need Tony to do.”
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Snell finished just 1-of-7 from the field for three points and seven assists.
Seniors A.J. Hardeman and Phillip McDonald tied former teammate Dairese Gary in wins at UNM. The two are now 98-36 in their Lobo careers.
Hardeman finished the game with four points and three rebounds. McDonald had two points.
The Lobos (24-6, 10-4 MWC) finished the game shooting 54.2 percent from the field off of 26-of-48 shots.
The Broncos (13-16, 3-11 MWC) made 20-of-46 shots for 40.8 percent and had three players in double-figures. Derrick Marks scored 17 points, Ryan Watkins had 16 and Thomas Bropleh added 12.
Freshman guard Hugh Greenwood continued his 22-point offensive onslaught from Wednesday night as he added 15 points from 4-of-7 shooting. He also recorded five rebounds and three assists.
“He started to shoot and that is what we needed him to do,” Alford said. “He can really shoot the ball and if we can get scoring like we are getting out of him that helps us.”
Greenwood said he stepped up his game because he knew if UNM won its last two games of the season it would win the MWC regular-season title.
“I really wanted to win, winning a championship level was one of my dreams coming here, and to do it on senior night was great,” he said.
