UNM suffered its fifth straight loss after a 63-46 thrashing by SDSU. The Lobos have now dropped six of their last eight games of the season. It’s the first time since 2007 that the Lobos have lost five consecutive games.
“I thought our guys fought and were going to continue to fight,” head coach Craig Neal said. “I’ve got good kids in that room and it’s like I said, it’s my job and I’m going to keep working and keep trying to get better.”
The Lobos struggled once again against the Aztecs by only shooting 30.9 percent (17-55 FG) from the floor and 33.3 percent (3-9 3FG) from behind the 3-point arc.
Finding a go-to guy this year has been tough for the Lobos. With sophomore guard Cullen Neal out of the lineup, the Lobos have had to overcome their roles and try to be scorers, something this team is not necessarily equipped with.
“If you look at my starting five, and I told our guys this, I was really candid with them, if you look at my starting five there’s not one of them in my starting five that’s ever been a go-to guy,” Craig Neal said. “I’ve got five guys that are in the starting lineup as role players.”
The Lobos traded the first few baskets with the Aztecs until SDSU went on a 10-0 run that gave them a 17-7 edge midway through the first half. Freshman Sam Logwood ended the run with a layup that cut the deficit to eight points.
SDSU wasn’t finished. After the Logwood layup, the Aztecs answered with yet another run, this one a 9-0 run that put the Aztecs in a comfortable position late in the first half. SDSU went into halftime with a 31-18 edge over the Lobos.
The Lobos (14-12, 6-8 Mountain West) threw multiple defenses at the Aztecs including man-to-man, a 2-3 zone and a 1-3-1 zone late in the game. None of these seemed to slow down the hot shooting Aztecs.
“I think we have to get back to guarding again,” Neal said. “I just think we gave them some really, really easy baskets and they made some shots in a timely fashion. We just have to get back to being solid defensively and tough-nosed.”
The Lobos stat line did not have a lot of bright spots but one that stuck out was offensive rebounds. The Lobos outrebounded the Aztecs 19-12 on the offensive glass and 36-33 overall.
UNM’s big men, Obij Aget and Devon Williams combined for seven of the teams eight blocks in Tuesday’s contest.
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SDSU (21-6, 11-3 Mountain West) was led by senior guard Aqeel Quinn, who scored a game-high 20 points on 8-15 shooting. Freshman forward and NBA Draft Prospect Malik Pope was the Aztecs next leading scorer with 16 points, none more exciting than a statement dunk over two Lobos late in the second half.
Kyle Tomasi is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @KyTo22.
