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LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Tony Snell waited on the floor of the Thomas & Mack Center Friday night to do a postgame interview with a CBS Sports Network reporter.
As he stood there, a heavy contingent of UNM fans began chanting “Tony, Tony, Tony.” The junior guard simply raised both arms in the air and the fans erupted in excitement.
Snell helped spur a 14-2 run to start the second half, leading the No. 15 New Mexico men past San Diego State in the Mountain West Basketball Championship semifinals. With its 60-50 win over the Aztecs, UNM earned a spot in the conference finals for the second time in two years.
The defending MWC tournament titleholder and current regular-season champion Lobos will play UNLV Saturday at 4 p.m. MT. The Runnin’ Rebels defeated Colorado State 75-65.
Snell finished the game with 17 points, leading all scorers. All five field goals came from 3-point range on eight attempts.
During the 14-2 second-half run, which UNM coach Steve Alford called his team’s best stretch to start a half this season, Snell drained three 3-pointers on back-to-back-to-back possessions, sending the fans into euphoria. His triples built a 43-22 lead, UNM’a largest margin of the contest.
“I was just trying to be aggressive,” Snell said. “I heard the crowd going, so that got me going. (SDSU) kind of backed off of me, so I tried to shoot the ball and stay aggressive.”
The run was part of a larger 26-4 run that spanned 8 minutes, 24 seconds over both halves. Over that period, sophomore center Alex Kirk scored nine points, junior forward Cameron Bairstow netted five and sophomore point guard Hugh Greenwood had a 3-pointer off a Bairstow assist.
“We kind of picked up our intensity, just kept going at them,” Kirk said. “We hit big shots. We got defensive stops and we rebounded.”
San Diego State, which never held a lead, cut to as close as 55-46 with 5:14 left to play but mustered just four points down the stretch. Their only field goal in that time came with 37 left to play.
Snell’s primary defensive assignment was Jamaal Franklin, the Aztecs top offensive threat. He contained the Aztec guard to eight points. Franklin averaged 17 points per game heading into the semifinals.
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“Part of the reason we’re 2-1 this year against them is because of the job Tony Snell has done,” Alford said. “He’s developed defensively. … Our team has gone to another level because of Tony’s development defensively and his concentration defensively, trusting himself, trusting his teammates, using his length.”
Those two players have battled against each other all year. Franklin kept Snell to seven points in their Jan. 26 meeting, which SDSU won 55-34 in San Diego. Franklin had 10 points in that game. A month later, when UNM beat SDSU 70-60 at The Pit, Franklin had 16 points and nine rebounds and Snell had 10.
Both players also wear No. 21 on their jerseys.
“We’re basically brothers from another mother. 21/21 all the way,” Franklin said. “He had a good game. … He got hot on the 3-point line with the three 3s in transition. But the battle is always going to be like that, me and Tony, since we were in Arizona at Westwind Prep.”
Both teams tried to establish their post presence from the opening tip, banging down low for points in the paint. Those baskets were hard to come by for the first three minutes, but UNM managed a 7-2 run to take an early advantage.
San Diego State, down 11-6, chipped away at that lead with an 8-3 run, tying the game at 14 before Snell hit a 3-pointer. The Aztecs kept up with UNM until the Lobos rallied for a 12-2 run over the half’s final five minutes, carrying a 29-20 lead into the locker room.
UNM eventually wore down SDSU in the post with Bairstow and Kirk, which led to the big run. Bairstow ended the first 20 minutes with 10 points and eight rebounds. Only Kirk had more than five first-half points; he had six.
While both teams remained close in first-half points in the paint (10-8), the Lobos scored 13 second-chance points to SDSU’s four.
UNM finished the game with a 24-22 edge in points in the paint and a 16-9 advantage on second-chance points, but San Diego State outscored UNM 17-5 off turnovers.
Bairstow earned his second double-double of the season with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Kirk had 15 points and seven boards.
“Their bigs did give us trouble at our end,” SDSU coach Steve Fisher said. “In situations against a lot of teams, we would get to the rim with a chance for baskets and/or fouls, and today they made it hard.”
Junior guard Kendall Williams had six assists along with seven points.
UNM hit 21 of 51 from the field (41.2 percent). Since 2010-11, the Lobos hold a 44-3 record when shooting 40 percent or better. They were 7 of 19 from beyond the arc (36.8 percent). From the foul line, UNM was 11 of 16 (68.8 percent).
UNM also handled the ball well in the second half. After seven first-half turnovers, the Lobos played a stretch of 10 minutes without a miscue. They had 10 turnovers for the game
“I just reverted back to what I put on the board at the beginning of the game. I put the word ‘crisp.’ Make crisp passes,” Alford said. “This is not a team you can throw soft, lazy passes to. They’re too athletic. They’re going to get deflections.
“We settled down. In the second half, I thought we did a much better job of taking care of the ball.”
Guards Xavier Thames and Chase Tapley scored 14 points apiece. While Franklin scored eight points, he pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds. The Aztecs were 20 of 64 from the field (31.3 percent), 5 of 21 from the 3-point line (23.8 percent) and 5 of 8 from the foul line (62.5 percent).
San Diego State missed out on the tournament finale for the first time in four years. New Mexico, meanwhile seeks its second-straight conference tournament title to go along with its four regular-season championships in five seasons.
Don’t expect Alford to tweak things now heading into the finale.
“Early in the season I would have said we would have done something different,” he said. “I’m not going to tell you the whole game plan. We’re going big (with Kirk and Cameron) regardless who our opponent is. We’re pretty committed to big-big. It’s worked pretty well for us.”
No. 3 UNLV 75, No. 2 Colorado State 65
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Guard Katin Reinhardt scored a career-high 21 points to put the Runnin’ Rebels into the MWC tournament championship game against New Mexico.
UNLV led by as many as 13 points in the game after gaining a 23-21 lead with 8:23 left in the first half. The Runnin’ Rebels never trailed after that, though Colorado State cut the deficit to 47-46 early in the second half.
Controlling the low post, UNLV outpaced Colorado State with a 36-22 points-in-the-paint advantage. The Runnin’ Rebels also outrebounded the Rams 42-32. CSU had just seven offensive rebounds for the game.
“It’s one of our goals every year, among many, to compete for a conference title,” UNLV coach Leon Rice said. “To get to a Saturday (title game) you have to win Thursday and Friday.”
From the field, UNLV made 26 of its 51 shots, or 41.2 percent. The team hit nine of its 20 second-half attempts. The Runnin’ Rebels were 7 of 18 from the 3-point line (38.8 percent) and 26 of 35 on free throws (74.3 percent).
Forward Anthony Bennett netted 19 points on 6 of 8 shooting. He made three of his four 3-point shots and all four free throws. Guard Anthony Marshall added 12 points.
“The Mountain West is a tough conference, as you can see,” Bennett said. “Every game’s a battle.”
Colorado State, meanwhile, was 25 of 65 from the field (38.5 percent), 4 of 16 from beyond the arc (25 percent) and 11 of 17 from the foul line (64.7 percent.
Center Colton Iverson led Colorado State with 24 points and 16 rebounds. Guard Wes Eikmeier had 13 points.
UNLV and New Mexico split the season series. In the Mountain West Conference regular-season opener Jan. 9, UNM captured a 65-60 win. The Runnin’ Rebels won the rematch on Feb. 9 at the Thomas & Mack Center by a 64-55 margin.
Going for their fourth MWC title, the Runnin’ Rebels previously won the tournament in 2000, 2007 and 2008.
“It’ll be the sixth time we played New Mexico in the last two years,” Rice said. “We know what they do, they know what we do. It’s a matter of executing.”
Mountain West Basketball Championship Game
Saturday
No. 1 New Mexico vs. No. 2 Colorado State or No. 3 UNLV, 4 p.m. MT
