The UNM men’s basketball team’s 13-game winning streak came to a halt Wednesday night at The Pit.
The Lobos fell to San Diego State 75-70 in front of a sold-out crowd. The Aztecs’ victory extended their winning streak to nine games.
“Anytime in league race (when) you lose home games it makes it difficult,” head coach Steve Alford said. “Losing this one puts our back against the wall early in the conference race.”
The Lobos (15-3, 1-1 MWC), have lost 11 of their last 14 meetings against the Aztecs (16-2, 2-0 MWC).
The Aztecs have won 23 straight games against current MWC teams and their nine game streak is the fifth-longest in the nation.
The Lobos started the game with a bang when senior forward Drew Gordon threw down an alley-oop pass from sophomore guard Kendall Williams, which ignited a 12-2 run.
“We appeared to be on the verge of being blown out,” Aztecs’ head coach Steve Fisher said about the Lobos’ early start.
It took four and a half minutes for the Aztecs to get on the board, and then only two minutes to catch up and take the lead.
“In that run, they did a really good job to stay poised,” senior forward Phillip McDonald said.
As the half went on, the Aztecs settled down and forced the Lobos into tough shots and nine turnovers, which allowed San Diego State to go into intermission down just one point, 31-30.
In the second half, the Aztecs got off to another slow start. The Lobos took a 48-44 lead after a McDonald 3-pointer. But San Diego State promptly took its game to a higher level.
Behind the leadership of point guards Xavier Thames and Chase Tapley, the Aztecs suffocated the Lobo offense and went on a 20-3 run to take a 64-51 lead and all but finish the Lobos.
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“I thought both point guards really broke us down,” Alford said.
Thames led all scorers with 22 points. Tapley followed with 12.
The Lobos finished the game shooting 39.1 percent from the field and shot 31 3-point field goals.
Four Lobos finished the game in double-digits. McDonald led the way with 20 points. Williams finished with 16, Gordon with 15 and Fenton added 10.
“We didn’t move, we didn’t cut, we were very stand-still,” McDonald said. “We have to execute better than that.”
Freshman guard Hugh Greenwood saw action for the first time since injuring his ankle against Houston Baptist, but was limited, only playing 10 minutes without scoring.
The Lobos are now 8-4 against top-25 teams under Alford. Three of the four losses are against San Diego State.
Alford said his team lacked what it took to win as the second half went on.
“We got complacent,” Alford said. “I thought we got softer as the game got going instead of tougher.”
