The clock hit zero, and the buzzer sounded; Section 26 rushed Bob King Court, and students hoisted UNM guard Nate Garth above their shoulders at The Pit on Wednesday. The UNM men’s basketball team defeated No.
Ask UNM men’s head basketball coach Steve Alford about his Lobos’ undefeated start, and he’ll say he is “pleasantly pleased.” But an Alford mood swing might be forthcoming on Wednesday when No.
All the players are the same — it’s only the minutes that will change. The Lobo lineup will remain intact when the UNM women’s basketball team (4-2) travels to NMSU on Wednesday, but point guard Amy Beggin will see diminished minutes due to a fatigued ankle — the same ankle she had minor surgery on in the offseason, said head coach Don Flanagan. Beggin, who played nearly 40 minutes per game last year, started off the season in similar fashion, playing all but two minutes through UNM’s first three games.
Unfortunately, at the conclusion of Saturday’s Thanksgiving Midtown Tournament, the UNM women’s basketball team (4-2) wasn’t able to say “Winner, winner — turkey dinner!” University of Toledo’s (5-2) menacing zone was the brainteaser the Lobos could never decipher, especially at the tail end of the game, resulting in a 62-56 loss for UNM.
Opposites might attract, but it was fatal attraction for the UNM football team and head coach Mike Locksley when the Lobos faced TCU on Saturday. The Horned Frogs (12-0 overall, 8-0 in the MWC), at the other end of the spectrum record-wise, trounced the Lobos (1-11 overall, 1-7 in the MWC), 51-10, in Fort Worth, Texas, capturing the Mountain West Conference championship outright and getting a bid for a Bowl Championship Series game.
It’s tournament time for the UNM volleyball team. After finishing the regular season 20-9 and clinching third place in the Mountain West Conference, the Lobos received one of 33 at-large bids into the NCAA Tournament, marking the sixth postseason appearance in program history and the UNM’s first tournament trip since 1994. Head coach Jeff Nelson said his team earned the distinction. “We’re so thankful to the NCAA Selection Committee for putting us back into the tournament after a little bit of a drought,” he said.
Lobo runner Jacob Kirwa started off lost in a sea of 209 runners at the NCAA Cross Country Championship in Terre Haute, Ind., last Monday. By the end of the race, he outperformed 198 of them, climbing to the 11th spot and finishing with a career best in the 10,000-meter run (29:46.1). “When we started I just hoped I could go fast at the beginning, but I ended up in like the 100th position, so I had to fight back,” he said.
You may have heard of Brandon Jennings. He was a standout high school point guard from Compton, Calif., averaging more than 30 points and seven assists his senior year and winning a truckload of awards along the way. Then came the time for a new rite of passage for prodigious young ballplayers: Picking a college at which to waste a year before entering the NBA.
Essentially, it was the run that never ended. Northern Arizona tumbled from the get-go as the UNM women’s basketball team just kept going and going and going, easily holding the Lumberjacks to their lowest point output of the season.
It was a weekend of threes for the UNM men’s basketball team. Three games, three wins — over Nicholls State, Louisiana Tech and then Miami of Ohio on Sunday — three players on the All-Tournament team. Throughout the UNM-hosted Travelers Tournament, the Lobos put up three 80-point games, winning by double digits all weekend. In Sunday night’s tournament wrap up, the Lobos blew out Miami of Ohio University 85-60 to finish off a perfect 3-0 weekend.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Let me hear you say Aho! A name scorned last week is now celebrated. A 27-yard field goal in the waning seconds of the Colorado State game may overshadow any sour memory fans had about kicker James Aho.
Curse ye, Colorado State. Curse ye, for ruining the UNM football team’s quest for imperfection. The Rams, entering Saturday’s contest riding a seven-game losing streak — outdone only by the Lobos, who had lost 14 consecutive games dating back to last year — looked like they had swapped uniforms with UNM at University Stadium. (Note to Athletics Director Paul Krebs: This slim 29-27 win for the Lobos doesn’t merit a contract extension for Locksley.
Certain things weren’t meant to be set in stone. For example, an 0-12 season for the UNM football team.
The UNM men’s soccer team’s season ended in heartbreak on Thursday. An overtime goal in the 98th minute by Portland midfielder Collen Warner sent the Lobos and an enormous crowd home disappointed, and Portland moved on to the next round 2-1. “This hurts,” said head coach Jeremy Fishbein, whose team finished 12-7-1 overall.
Mike Locksley has battled on the football field for 20-plus years, but nothing could prepare him for the news that his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Locksley’s mother, Venita Locksley, a fighter, survived breast cancer.
Week in, week out, the media continues to put a quarter in that old Locks’ jukebox. And why not, when it plays such lyrical prose, such melodic, sweet-sounding music? If the head coaching gig doesn’t work out, Mike Locksley should consider becoming a motivational speaker. To his credit, if there’s one thing Locksley and his players have learned how to do over the course of this season, it’s to linguistically sweeten the tart. So much so, in fact, that should the Lobos go 0-12, Locksley, please mull over giving the eulogy at UNM’s season-ending memorial service. Figuratively, Locksley was planning on winning a game this year.
The UNM women’s basketball team didn’t have enough speed or force to stop Oklahoma State on Wednesday. The Cowgirls tired out the Lobos in the semifinals of the preseason Women’s National Invitational Tournament at The Pit, 70-56, putting the Lobos 2-1 in the season. “We played a good first half, but in the second half we couldn’t shoot,” said head coach Don Flanagan.
The UNM men’s soccer team’s season was kept alive by the NCAA Selection Committee. The Lobos earned an at-large bid during Monday’s selection show and will play Portland at home on Thursday.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. The solo senior from the Lone Star State shined bright Tuesday at the Pan American Center. Roman Martinez, the only senior on the 2009-10 UNM men’s basketball team, tied his careerhigh with 24 against in-state rival, New Mexico State. Martinez was one rebound shy of a double-double with nine.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — What the UNM men’s basketball team learned Tuesday at the Pan American Center: The Aggies aren’t hemophiliacs. Yes, NMSU bled — for that matter poured in the first 20 minutes of Tuesday’s contest, down 16 at intermission — but eventually the blood coagulated, and the Aggies’ apparent mortal wound didn’t turn out to be as deadly as first thought. When all was said and done, the Lobos eked out a 97-87 victory over their inner-state rivals, marking the Lobos’ fourth consecutive win over NMSU, two of those wins coming in Las Cruces.
Solutions by The State News
