Lobo Guard Jamal Mashburn Jr. had 26 points in Friday’s loss to Towson in Las Vegas, Nevada (Courtesy UNM Athletics)
LAS VEGAS, Nevada – Basketball is a simple game.
If you can put the ball in the basket, teams can get away with many shortcomings.
Friday night the Lobos couldn’t get a shot and a team that hasn’t yet proven it can defend or ricochet had nowhere to hide when the Towson Tigers did a wire-to-wire beat-down for consolation, 73-58, won the Las Vegas Invitational game at the Orleans Arena.
“We haven’t had a night when we couldn’t take a shot. We had great offensive performances in our first six games, failing to score for the first time tonight, and our lack of defense and lack of rebounds caught up with us, ”said Lobo’s first year coach, Richard Pitino’s diary after the Game. “That will happen and you will not win if you think you can beat everyone all the time. We clearly have to get tougher. This tournament showed that we just aren’t physical enough. We are not harsh enough. “
UNM hit only 20 of 62 shots (32.3%) and was beaten 45-31. And for the second straight night, UNM wasted a 26-point scoring night on second security guard Jamal Mashburn Jr.
“The only thing that matters to me is victory, so of course I have to do more and we have to get better as a team in a lot of areas,” said Mashburn Jr .. “… They just knocked us out. They overwhelmed and overwhelmed us. … You brought it to us. “
While previous Lobo losses in Colorado (within 3 with less than two minutes to play) and against UAB on Thursday (with five minutes to go) were consistently competitive, the game on Friday was around the time the Lobos played Opening a miscarriage without any drama tip resulted in a layup by Terry Nolan Jr. just four seconds into the game.
Towson led 12-0 before Mashburn hit UNM’s first shot after 5 minutes and 6 seconds.
The Lobos only hit 2 of their first 14 shots (14.3%), while the Tigers jumped out by 20 points in the first half.
When UNM walked into the locker room at half-time 42:29, 42:29 behind, its 34.4% shots were the worst it had recorded that season, just down from its 30.0% shots in the second half to surpass.
While the whistle clearly didn’t do the Lobos any good, office wasn’t why they lost the game. Their inability to handle calls or games that don’t go their way without mental checking – especially from their front court players who have become a recurring theme this season – seemed to affect the outcome far more than foul disparity from 21:13.
Starting center Gethro Muscadin failed with a final statistic of 2 points in 1-of-4 shooting, zero rebounds and two assists in 10 minutes. Backup bigs Birima Seck and Jay Allen-Tovar combined for four points in 2-of-8 shooting with five rebounds and four more fouls in 37 minutes.
And when the Lobos got small, Javonte Johnson and Saquan Singleton – the guards who play “4” place for UNM for a few minutes – combined for 1-of-12 shooting and four points (even though Johnson had eight team-height rebounds ). ).
Taryn Todd was the only other Lobo to score double digits with 14 points in the 5-of-12 shooting.
The Lobos don’t have much time to lick their wounds either. The team had a scheduled flight to Albuquerque at 8 a.m. on Saturday and will play against state rivals New Mexico State in Las Cruces on Tuesday night.
“It’s up to me,” said Pitino. “I’m excited to come back home and work on it. Because it will be a process. It will be painful at times. But we know where to grow.
BOX ITEMS: Towson 73, New Mexico 58
NEXT: Tuesday, UNM at NMSU, Pan Am Center (Las Cruces), 7pm
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