Despite strong defensive efforts from the New Mexico men’s basketball team, a late foul call on a 3-point attempt all but hammered the nail into the Lobos’ coffin, as they lost Friday’s exhibition game against Brigham Young , 79-73.
In the closing seconds of the game, Lobo forward Vladimir Pinchuk picked up a foul on a BYU 3-pointer. The Cougars capitalized by making all three free throw attempts, and after a free throw by Antino Jackson brought the game within four points for the Lobos, the Cougars added two more free throws to close out their victory in Albuquerque, New Mexico in front of a crowd of 4,902.
Despite the loss, the Lobos still showed signs of promise, especially on the defensive end. A mix of presses, man-to-man and traps forced 23 BYU turnovers in total.
Head coach Paul Weir said that was about how many turnovers he expected his team to have, but he still didn’t think the defense executed other aspects to their full potential.
As far as the Lobos’ offense goes, Sam Logwood — one of the five returnees from last season — led all scorers with 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting and 7-of-11 made free throws, while also adding six rebounds, an assist and two steals.
Weir praised Logwood’s efforts on Friday evening, saying that his player’s performance stemmed from a passion to win.
“Sam’s been great,” Weir said. “He wants this really badly right now, and I know he’s trying to maybe make up for things all at one time, and I think you can feel his aggression, his commitment, his energy — and as long as we can kind of keep using him in the right way offensively and spreading the floor, I think he’ll keep having games like that.”
BYU opened up the scoring in the game, with a tip in by forward Yoeli Childs to go up 2-0. The cougars went up 4-0 before the Lobos managed to put their first points on the board, courtesy of a jumper by Troy Simons, to make the score 4-2 a little over two and a half minutes into the game.
Early on in the first half, the Lobos’ 6-foot-9 Connor Macdougall landed awkwardly on his ankle. He sat out the rest of the game for cautionary reasons, though Weir said, “I don’t think it’s anything serious.”
“We were gonna bring him back in the second half (after) he went out for warm ups but just didn’t want to risk it at this point of the year. I think if it was January or February, he probably would’ve gone, but just not really worth it right now,” Weir said.
The Lobos managed to shoot 2-for-11 four minutes in, but New Mexico grabbed their first lead on a free throw from Logwood, giving the Lobos a 7-6 advantage early on.
Both teams traded baskets until the game was tied up at 18 points apiece, before BYU managed to go on a 10-0 run to go up 28-18 with 7:34 left to play in the half.
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That run was ended by two made Logwood free throws, to shorten the Cougars‘ lead to eight points. Shortly after, Jackson managed to get a steal on defense, which set up a 2-point jumper from Anthony Mathis.
Joe Furstinger added a layup, pulling New Mexico within four, before the Cougars managed to nail 1-of-2 free throws right after, putting the away team up by five points.
However, a big 3-pointer, courtesy of Mathis, brought the Lobos back within 2, 29-27, and a Logwood free throw shortened that to just one point.
The final three minutes before the half saw BYU go up by as many as five points, but Furstinger, in his first time since his freshman season, managed to nail a 3-pointer to again shorten the score. The Cougars added another 2 points to go up 37-33 with under a minute before the half, but New Mexico didn’t shy away, as guard Dane Kuiper drained another 3-pointer before the half ended.
Defensive pressure was stout for the Lobos all throughout the game, but especially so in the first half. Man-to-man seemed to be Weir’s go-to, but defense traps and ball-hawking basketball from New Mexico forced 12 turnovers in the first half of play.
BYU opened up the second half with a 5-0 run to go up 42-36 in the first two minutes, but a Makuach Maluach layup put the Lobos’ first points of the half on the scoreboard.
Eventually, New Mexico grabbed ahold of the lead in the second half after a Jackson steal set up Chris McNeal’s 3-pointer to go up 45-44 over the Cougars.
More back-and-forth scoring occurred towards the tail end of the second half, with neither team leading by more than 6 points.
New Mexico took a 67-65 lead on a Logwood layup with under five minutes to play. That is, though, until BYU went on a 6-0 run to go up 71-67.
As a team, New Mexico shot 37.1 percent from the field, 17.9 percent from behind the arc and made 16 of their 24 free throws. Defensively, UNM was out rebounded by the Cougars 48-33.
Besides Logwood’s performance, Furstinger, too, put on a show. He scored nine points on 3-of-6 shooting, while also grabbing six rebounds and a steal. Both Simons and Jackson had eight points a piece, while Mathis and McNeal each added seven points.
For Furstinger, losing a game — even an exhibition — isn’t something he wants to be accustomed to. Instead, he said that the real test comes when the season starts.
“We’re never satisfied,” Furstinger said. “Obviously we would like to get the win, but it doesn’t count on the record, so Nov. 11 is when it really starts.”
The Lobos will start regular season play against Northern New Mexico at Dreamstyle Arena on Saturday, Nov. 11 at 7 p.m.
Matthew Narvaiz is a senior sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers baseball and men’s and women’s basketball but also contributes content for football. He can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @matt_narvaiz.
