Saturday night in Las Vegas the UNM men's basketball team continued its struggles on the road, losing to UNLV 89-80.
The lack of intensity and defense in the first half eventually did the Lobos in, letting another opportunity to break their road losing streak slip away. The losing streak is now at 21.
"We were horrendous defensively, and I can't explain it," Ritchie McKay said in a post-game interview on 770 KOB.
In what was a complete turnaround from the two previous victories, the defenseless Lobos let UNLV scorch the nets.
The Lobos gave up 50 first-half points, letting the Rebels shoot 70 percent from the field, including 72 percent from behind the arc.
While Javin Tindall single-handedly kept UNM in the game with his five first-half threes, the Lobos had no answer to the well-balanced attack of the Rebels. After falling quickly behind 10-2, UNM used a quick 8-0 run to get back in the game.
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But midway through the first period, UNM went stale on both sides of the floor. The Lobos failed to respond, as UNLV scored at will, extending its lead to 50-34 at halftime.
"It wasn't tough for them at all offensively," McKay said. "They went into the lane, and nobody put a body on them. No one was pressuring the ball and it was sickening to watch.
"We prepared so hard for a road win, and now we just have to go back and try it again."
In the second half, UNM opened with a quick 8-0 spurt as the defensive intensity picked up.
"We played very good defense in the second half," McKay said. "It seemed like whenever we had a chance to get the lead under five or seven, we'd make a bucket, but then couldn't get a stop."
The Lobos were not able to get any closer than five the rest of the way as they clawed and battled, but couldn't get over the hump.
Danny Granger, the Lobos' go-to guy, had his worst outing by far in the cherry and silver. He never seemed to get into the flow of the offense, picking up a detrimental third foul in the first half. He gave the Lobos only 11 minutes of action in the first half. Granger finished the game four of 12 from the field, for a season-low 12 points.
On the bright side, Tindall broke out of his shooting slump, shredding the Rebel's defense for 27 points. All his points came from behind the arc, shooting 9-11 from three-point land. His nine 3-pointers tied Ruben Douglas for the most ever by a Lobo player.
David Chiotti finished a good offensive game with 19 points, while Troy Devries added 14.
The Rebels had three players finish the game with 20 points or more. Their triple-threat offense of Odartey Blankson, Romel Beck and J.K. Edwards got easy open buckets all night long. They finished with 20, 24 and 21 points, respectively. UNM could not stop the stellar inside play of Edwards. UNLV's only legit inside presence dominated Chiotti in the paint. Edwards did not miss a shot from the field going 9-9 and grabbing 10 rebounds. The Rebels finished with 34 points inside the paint to the Lobos' 22.
"We have to figure out how to play defensively without our fans, otherwise we will continue to be on this streak," McKay said.
UNM finishes its road swing tonight as they head to Southern California to clash with San Diego State. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. The game can be seen on KRQE channel 13 and heard on 770 KOB AM.
