Staff Report
The UNM men's basketball team dropped to last place in the Mountain West Conference after a 80-64 loss to Brigham Young University on Saturday.
The loss marked the Lobos 13th consecutive road loss dating back to last year. It is the longest such streak since they dropped 14 in a row during the 1981-82 season.
UNM (7-11, 1-4 MWC) was led once again by senior guard Ruben Douglas who scored 39 points, 22 of them coming in the first half. Douglas scored a career-high 40 points in Monday's loss to UNLV.
The Lobos stayed in the game throughout the first half with Douglas almost single handedly leading the team. He had 19 of UNM's first 23 points and finished the period six-for-12 from the field including five-of-eight from 3-point range. As the half wore on, so did the Lobos, struggling to stay with BYU's size, strength and depth. The Cougars (14-5, 3-1 MWC) rallied at the end of the half, building an eight-point lead, 39-31.
In the second half, BYU picked up right where it left off in the first half by pounding UNM inside with one big man after another. High-flying guard Travis Hansen led the way for the Cougars with 19 points on seven of 11 shooting. Forwards Mark Bigelow and Jared Jensen were also instrumental, scoring 18 and 15 points respectively. Ricky Bower came off the bench to add 14 points.
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The name of the game for BYU was balance. The Cougars had nine players who played at least 11 minutes of the game with only Bigelow eclipsing 30 minutes played. On the other hand, the Lobos had only six player's finish in double figures in minutes. Douglas played an exhausting 38 minutes while junior guard Javin Tindall put in 34 minutes. Freshman Mark Walters and junior Ryan Ashcraft also played 33 minutes each. BYU's advantage in depth clearly helped lead the way in beating down an already fragile Lobo team. The Cougars had four players with at least five rebounds and another five who pulled down at least four boards. UNM had only Douglas and Ashcraft finish with five or more rebounds. In fact, BYU dominated the glass collecting 38 rebounds to the Lobos' 26. The Cougars' depth and size was too much for UNM's mostly guard-oriented team as they pulled away in the latter stages of the game for a decisive 16-point victory.
As if the Lobos didn't already have enough problems, sophomore forward Jamaal Williams finished with no points or rebounds in just seven minutes of play. Williams came into the game as the second leading scorer and rebounder on the team averaging 13.1 PPG and 5.8 RPG. Head coach Ritchie McKay alluded to the fact that Williams had not earned his minutes in practice.
Walters and Tindall had nine and eight points in the game. Douglas came within one point of becoming the first Lobo to record back-to-back 40-point games. His 79 points over two games are second in team history to Marvin Johnson who had 82 over a two-game span in 1978.
UNM will try to stay out of the record books and snap its 13-game road losing streak when it takes on heavily favored Utah in Salt Lake City tonight. The game gets under way at 7 p.m. and can be seen on KRQE CH. 13 or heard on KKOB 770.