Cold Shooting, Foul Trouble Doom Lobos in Exhibition Loss to Washington State
Chris Howell shoots the ball before UNM’s exhibition game vs. Washington State. Photo courtesy of UNM Athletics
PULLMAN, Washington—It’s only an exhibition and we shouldn’t read a whole lot into it.
The UNM men’s basketball team fell 74-66 to Washington State in an exhibition contest played at Beasley Coliseum on Saturday.
“I left tonight more encouraged than discouraged,” head coach Eric Olen said to The Albuquerque Journal after the game. “There’s things that we have to get better at and clean up, but I thought there were some good defensive possessions. There were defintely some plays where we connected on that side of the ball.”
Here was UNM’s starting lineup.
UNM played 11 of 14 scholarship players. Sophomore Kallai Patton, freshman Sir Marius Jones, and freshman Timéo Pons did not suit up for the Lobos in the contest. As is typical for college basketball teams in exhibition games, UNM experimented with different lineups in an effort to narrow down a rotation when the season starts.
“That’s part of what we’re trying to figure out,” Olen said. “We have to get a lot of guys reps and we have to get different lineups and rotations reps together so that we can evaluate how to best use everybody.”
The Lobos held a 38-37 lead going into the halftime break. UNM shot 8 for 22 (36%) from the three-point line in the first half, with Jake Hall, Uriah Tenette and Milos Vicentic each knocking down two triples. UNM forced 13 Wazzu turnovers and finished the first half on strong a 14-5 run.
UNM could not sustain the offensive momentum into the second half. Despite taking a 49-42 lead off a Uriah Tenette 3-pointer with 12:29 to play, the Lobos shot a pitiful 7 for 35 (20%) from the field in the second half and only 3 for 22 (13%) from three. The Cougars went on a 10-0 scoring run mid-way through the second half and never looked back.
UNM was not gun shy from the 3-point line. Forty-four of UNM’s 75 shots were from beyond the arc. The Lobos shot 25% from the 3-point line for the game. UNM was nearly as bad from inside the arc, shooting 9-31 (29%) in the contest.
“If the shots are there, we’re not going to pass them up,” Olen said. “We shot 11 for 44 from three. I don’t think that’s why we didn’t get on the right side of the outcome…Depending on how people play us, we’re going to take what they give us.”
Foul Trouble
UNM committed 31 team fouls; 11 fouls in the first half and 20 fouls in the second half. Tenette, Chris Howell, Luke Haupt, and Deyton Albury all technically fouled out with five personal fouls. According to Olen, it was an in-game decision to not disqualify players with 5 fouls because it was an exhibition.
Washington State got into the 1-and-1 at the 15:03 mark in the second half, which really slowed the game down. The Cougars shot 22-31 from the free throw line in the second half compared to shooting 7-12 in the first half. The Lobos only forced six second half turnovers and only had 6 second half fast break points. The Lobos’ transition game lost momentum because of the frequent stoppages in play.
Who Stood Out?
Tenette and Hall were UNM’s leading scorers going into the second half. Tenette started out 0-4 from the field before knocking down this 3-pointer with 8:21 left in the first half
Hall started 0-2 and then hit back-to-back triples in the first half.
Both Hall and Tenette were in the game for UNM in the final minute while UNM tried to make a final push. Tenette and Hall shot a combined 23 shots.
Albury had a rough night. He was called for his third personal foul at the 15:41 mark in the first half and was not able to get into a rhythm. He did not score a basket until the 8:48 mark in the second half. He finished the game 1-11 from the field with 4 rebounds, two assists and 3 turnovers. Albury had a +/- of -14 for the game.
Kevin Patton Jr. andr Tajavis Miller also struggled. Both were each 1 for 6 from the field and a combined 1-7 from the 3-point line.
Patton did have a nice second half put-back, which was UNM’s only made field goal for the first 6 minutes of the second half.
Chol was efficient from the floor, shooting 3-7 from the field and finishing tied with Uriah Tenette with a team high 11 points.
“I like what we saw out there, Chol said. “We didn’t get the win, but me personally on a positive note, (sic) we can be a way better team than (we are) now.”
The Lobos have their final preseason contest on Oct. 30, in The Pit where they will take on Northern Arizona at 7:00 pm.
