The champions of the Mountain West Tournament, the University of New Mexico men’s basketball team traveled to Memphis, Tennessee to face off against the Clemson Tigers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Lobos were not able to take home a victory as the Tigers knocked them out early in the tournament with a dominant performance.
While it was a disappointing outcome, Head Coach Richard Pitino talked about how much growth the men’s basketball program has had in the last three years, and how proud he is of the players this season.
“It was certainly not a good day to go cold; we just couldn’t make a shot,” Pitino said. “It stings right now, but I’m extremely proud of the growth in this program. Making it to the NCAA Tournament in year three (and winning) a conference tournament championship is all great.”
The game started with the tip-off going to the Lobos, and they got the ball to Jamal Mashburn Jr. (5) who was able to get a bucket to open up the score. The Tigers came back to show a slower style that led to consistency in their offense, starting with PJ Hall (24) who sank a clean three-point bucket.
The Lobos started off with good defense against the tight and technical Tigers, but the offense was continually being rushed, leading to lots of missed shots. But the Lobos were still putting up points. Jaelen House (10) was able to have a great steal in the defense and transferred the momentum into a three-point bucket of his own.
In the first five minutes, Mashburn Jr. elbowed Joseph Girard III (11), and the momentum shifted in the Riders’ favor. Things seemed to be progressively going wrong until House was able to put a fast pass to Mashburn Jr. who put the ball up, and Nelly Junior Joseph (23) was able to finish it off.
Clemson took over the rest of the game and ran with the lead, making fantastic passes and playing solid defense that led to a 14-2 run. The pressure the Tigers put on the Lobos led to a scoring drought for almost five minutes. The Tigers ended up leading by 16 points with 27-11.
Lobos began to chip away at the lead Clemson created. After making two free throws, House went to turn up the heat and made multiple scrappy plays that almost tripped the Tigers up, but they were able to maintain their composure.
Donovan Dent (2) was quiet the first half of the game until the last five minutes. Dent got himself a two-point shot, but had unsuccessful drives to the rim due to the Tiger’s physicality. That physicality showed itself through RJ Godfrey (10) who pushed past Junior Joseph and made an affirmative two-handed dunk.
Coming out of the last media timeout of the half, the Lobos saw more progress as Tru Washington (3) came off the bench and assisted House in a shot from the three-point line. Washington would also go on to have a great steal of his own and put the ball up for Dent to finish.
But the Tigers held on to their lead and were up by 14 points going into halftime with the score being 42-28.
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Coming out of halftime, the Clemson Tigers were hot on the court. Godfrey was able to have himself two layups off of rebounds at the rim, and Hunter was able to make a two-point shot from the free throw line. The Lobos called a timeout quickly to stop the momentum, but nothing was stopping the Tigers.
Washington came out in the later minutes with a good three-point basket, and House was able to have a good drive to the rim. But after a timeout, the Tigers halted the Lobos’ momentum. Coming out of that timeout, Chauncey Wiggins (21) was able to make a great three-point shot to further Clemson’s dominant performance. They continued to hold the lead by 19 going into the final stretch of the game at 59-40.
House tried to bring the momentum back for the Lobos with more aggression, but only found himself in foul trouble, and eventually fouled out of the game.
Jemarl Baker Jr. (0) was subbed into the game and made a layup.
In the post game interview, Baker Jr. talked about how the Tigers played at their own pace throughout the game, and how that affected him and the team.
“We felt like we ran around, tried to scrap around and we weren’t able to make them uncomfortable the way we wanted to. Because of that, we couldn’t fight back,” Baker Jr. said.
The Clemson Tigers took home their first NCAA tournament win in six years. The Lobos will be coming home after a disappointing defeat in the first round. But it was a fantastic season with a 26-9 record, with a 10-8 conference play and then a 4-0 showing at the MWTournament win in Las Vegas.
BillyJack Davidson is a beat reporter at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @BillyJackDL
BillyJack Davidson is a beat reporter at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached on Twitter @BillyJackDL
