For a late span Tuesday night, a tight game morphed into a battle between UNM’s Tim Williams and UNLV’s Patrick Cornish.
The teams played to a 70-all tie past the seven-minute mark in the second half. From that point to the final minute, only forward Williams or guard Cornish saw the net. The two went back and forth, almost shot for shot.
Williams scored 12 straight points for UNM in that run, adding to his new season high 29 points in the Lobos’ 87-83 home victory over UNLV. He sank 10 field goals on 15 attempts with a 9 of 12 efforts from the foul line.
“I was just trying to do things to help my team win and tonight they called on me,” Williams said, acknowledging he didn’t necessarily feel he put the team on his back. “Luckily I made some shots.”
Williams has emerged as one of the most consistent players in the Mountain West. After Tuesday night, he continued to hold the league lead in field goal percentage shooting at nearly 60 percent. He’s nine percentage points ahead of Air Force’s Hayden Graham, the only other 50 percent shooter.
Also, as of Wednesday morning, his 17.1 points per game ranked fifth on the conference’s scoring list.
Williams tends not to be the most vocal guy, and that’s an aspect Neal said he’s been trying to draw out from his post player. Though he doesn’t speak much, what he does say resonates. Neal compared it to E.F. Hutton advertisements from the ‘80s in that– as the tagline goes – when he talks, people listen.
“Now you’ve got to realize he was an unbelievable quarterback in high school, and to play quarterback you had to talk,” Neal said. “I’m just trying to figure out if I can get him to talk a little more and be a quarterback for us because he’s very knowledgeable.”
Against the Runnin’ Rebels, Williams posted his ninth 20-plus scoring game this year and the Lobos are 7-2 in those games. When he scores at least in double figures UNM is 13-6 this year.
Only twice has Williams had what some would consider “bad games,” those being eight-point efforts both at New Mexico State and at UNLV. And Neal said he doesn’t even consider those bad games.
“He’s been Mr. Consistent and he’s just got amazing hands,” Neal said. “I know we had a lot of scouts in the stands to watch certain guys, but I’m sure they found somebody else.”
Neal referred to scouts from the Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets, Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks in attendance.
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As key as Williams has been for UNM as of late, Cornish ensured that UNLV kept pace. Williams struck first with a jumper to put the Lobos ahead by two, but Cornish responded with a triple. Williams hit layups on consecutive possessions, then Cornish drained another three at the other end.
A traditional three-point play from Williams also came with a Cornish long-range shot, tying the game at 79. But Williams made one more layup to push and a free throw, and UNM finished off the Rebels with its late foul shooting.
Though Williams has been a regular contributor for UNM, Cornish put forth his best game this year with 17 points, all in the second half. He had been averaging only 4.8 points this year with his previous season best at 10 points.
“Once I look back on it I could see how everybody thought I would come down and score and then he would come down and hit a 3” Williams said. “We just needed one stop and he would keep hitting 3s. During those stretches, we’ve got to get stops on defense.”
Most of Williams’ production came in the second half, where he scored 17 points. Other Lobos like Cullen Neal, Xavier Adams, Obij Aget and Elijah Brown contributed to the scoring but several times fed Williams for scores down low.
Craig Neal credited those other players for allowing Williams to take over, and getting them the ball early and often.
“I’ll just say this: I think the players made nice adjustments to get him the ball,” he said.
J.R. Oppenheim is the assistant sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers men’s basketball and women’s soccer. Contact him at assistantsports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @JROppenheim.
