“I love Pit games,”
said UNM head
coach Steve Alford as he sat for the post game press conference,
clearly still
charged from the victory. “I love Pit games. Nothing better.”
The “Incident” began
with a simple
timeout. AFA’s Kyle Green, who had cut the Lobo lead to 57-51
with a wide open
trey just 3 minutes before, bumped shoulders hard with Lobo
guard Jamal Fenton
at mid court. Soon an Air Force assistant coach was yelling at
Fenton, which
set off Alford and assistant coach Craig Neal. Both benches
cleared and strong
words were exchanged as coaches and players were restrained and
the officials
worked out the foul situation.
In the end, Green,
Fenton and
Kendall Williams were all assessed technical fouls, Air Force’s
Todd Fletcher’
hit one of two free throws and the Lobo went on an 8-0 run that
put the what
had been a tightening game out of the Falcons’ reach.”
“It was obviously
something with players,”
said Alford after the game. “I think the exchange of coaches’
came because we
aren’t going to let that happen. That made things get a little
more heated and
the officials did a really good job of calming everyone down.
“It was really to our
benefit,
because, I’m not sure what the score was at that point, but I
think after that
it was very good play on our part.”
The Lobos took the
negative energy
from the incident and turned it into positive aggressive energy,
taking the
ball right at the Falcons 18-6 for the rest of the contest.
And the Lobos
defense, which held
Air Force to 40% shooting overall (20 of 50( and 29% shooting
from three point
range (7 of 24) was largely the cause of he win.
“We held them to 29
points both
halves and we were able to make more free throws than they were,
I thought we
dominated the glass and I thought it was a great performance for
our team.”
UNM finished with all
five starters
in double figures, with Cameron Bairstow, Alex Kirk and Tony Snell all scoring
14 points. The Lobos outrebounded the falcons 39 to 24,
including a ridiculous
13 to 4 advantage on offensive board that translated to a 14-2
advantage in second
chance points.
UNM also dominated in
the paint,
outscoring AFA 30-16.
The Falcons, who
trailed 42-39 at
halftime, were paced by Mike Fitzgerald and Michael Lyons. Each
scored a
game-high 16 points, but were the only Falcons in double
figures.
Alford said he was
pleased with his
team, which stands alone in the MWC standings with a 7-1
conference slate and
already at the 20-win point with eight games left in the regular
season.
“We played great and
to get to the
midpoint and be 7-1 and in first place all by ourselves and
separating
ourselves from a vast number of teams says a lot about our
guys,” said Alford. “Great
game and I’m very pleased.”