LAS VEGAS - To beat the University of Nevada at Las Vegas on its home floor Thursday, the UNM men's basketball team knew it would have to muster every bit of heroics it had.
"We had a number of different heroes tonight," UNM head coach Fran Fraschilla. "I am proud of all of them and of how they all played."
Five Lobos finished with double figure scoring, but it seemed as though two Lobos in particular seemed to not be willing to go down without a fight.
The guard tandem of Ruben Douglas and Eric Chatfield combined for 57 of the Lobos' 117 points and nearly carried the team on their backs to victory.
Even though Chatfield's scoring took a dip this year, it didn't against the Rebels, as the senior scored a combined 42 points in the two teams' regular season meetings. Throughout the year, he has always been the Lobos primary defensive weapon, but Thursday night, the Lobos needed his scoring and got it.
Chatfield finished with 25 points on eight-of-15 shooting and may have had more had he not picked up his fifth foul with eight seconds left to play in regulation. But before his exit, when it looked as though UNM could fade, he came up big.
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With the Lobos down 77-71 in the second half, Chatfield drove the length of the floor for a layup, then followed that up with an NBA-range 3-pointer to cut the Rebels' lead to 77-76.
Then, when point guard Senque Carey went to the bench with his fourth foul, he ran the point, but picked up a charging foul and a blocking foul under the UNLV basket to end his night on a low note.
"Eric, he's a hard-nosed player," Douglas said. "Tonight, he stepped it up and played emotional because he knew we had to play like it was our last game. He's a senior and he played like it."
Douglas himself had his share of heroics during the course of his 32-point evening.
As time ran out in the first half, Douglas launched a bomb from near the half court line to give the Lobos a 51-49 lead at halftime.
He was also the beneficiary of some well-planned in-bounds plays and he hit a key three with 14.5 seconds to play in regulation that game the Lobos a 96-95 lead.
But it just wasn't enough.
"People can't say we didn't play hard tonight," Douglas said. "You can't play harder than what we did, and things just didn't seem to go our way."
UNLV's Lou Kelly, who scored 35 points himself on the night, praised Douglas' effort.
"He's just a pro," Kelly said. "He can go left, he can shoot fade-aways, 3-pointers. He had everything in the arsenal."
Douglas and Chatfield will likely get another chance to share the court together, as the Lobos likely will receive a bid to the newly expanded NIT tournament.
Douglas said the team would accept the invitation but would have liked to play in the other postseason basketball tournament, the NCAA Tournament.
"If we get a bid to the NIT, we just have to make the best of it like we did last year," Douglas said. "We'll make a run there, get better and have it carry over into next season."
