Fresh off of a 3-0 start to conference play, the Lobos went to Las Vegas to take on the UNLV Rebels, who were sitting at 0-3 in conference games and made a coaching change because of that. Instead of the broken, dysfunctional team that might have been expected out of that situation, the Lobos faced a reenergized Rebel squad that had no intention of dropping to 0-4. UNM wasn’t able to keep up with UNLV’s energy, falling to the Rebels by a final score of 86-74 and dropping to 3-1 in conference play.

Game Recap

As I mentioned in my preview, I didn’t really know what to expect out of UNLV for this one, given what happened with their coaching situation this weekend. Arguments could have been made that they were going to completely collapse or that they were going to galvanize as a team and play to their talent level. What happened was probably closer to the later than the former, although that hardly tells the story of what happened in this one.

The first half was really competitive, with the Rebels playing with a lot of energy and passion but with the Lobos staying right with them. It was clear, though, that the Rebels were controlling the game. They were speeding the Lobos up, goading them into taking bad shots early in the shot clock and into making bad passes that lead to easy transition baskets. Still, the Lobo defense was able to keep them in the game, allowing them to head into the break only down 34-28 and to have confidence that they’d be able to come back once their offense settled in.

Unfortunately, in the second half, the Lobo defense faltered, allowing the Rebels to get too many good looks and giving up too many fouls. The fouls in particular seemed like a big issue, as they put both Lobo starting bigs into danger of fouling out, making them more tentative on both ends of the court, and sent the Rebels to the line a lot, where they were unusually good. The foul trouble also pressed the inexperienced bench into more minutes than they might have gotten otherwise, which allowed UNLV to continue speeding the Lobos up and making them rush their offense. With all of that, the Rebels were able to get out to a comfortable lead and, despite a late run by the Lobos to make the score almost respectable, they coasted to their first victory in conference play while the Lobos suffered their first conference loss.

Players of the Game

1. Elijah Brown (33 points on the season): While some of the Lobos looked flustered by the UNLV energy, Elijah never seemed rattled and was able to put together another strong performance. In his team-leading 37 minutes, he was able to put up a 24 point and 10 rebound line to pick up the first double-double of his career. I would have liked to see him distribute the ball a little better than he did, as he only picked up one assist, but I do appreciate how hard he fought until this game’s final whistle.
2. Sam Logwood (7 points on the season): Sam put together one of his best games of the season, picking up 12 points and 6 rebounds while playing with a lot of energy. He looked more aggressive at times in this one, which he’ll need to do consistently if he’s going to be the player I think he can be, and attacked the rim several times. He’s also now shooting 45.8% from three point range, so it would be nice to see him shoot them more often.
3. Obij Aget (11 points on the season): Big O played pretty well in this one, ending up with a line of 11 points and 8 boards in only 25 minutes. The main thing that held him back was that he got into foul trouble, which limited his minutes in the second half especially. Obij certainly has his uses on offense, but the main area where he was missed when he was stuck on the bench was on defense. His defense against the bigs, his ability to alter drives to the basket, and his defensive rebounding make a huge difference as to what the Lobos are able to do on defense, so if he can cut down on the fouls while still playing tough defense, it would really help the Lobos shut down a lot of their opponents.

Scattered Thoughts

• This was another game where the team’s lack of depth in the front court reared its ugly head (remember, the Lobos now have three scholarship big men who are no longer playing on the team for various reasons). This was a tough matchup because of that, as UNLV has several talented bigs, including 7-foot freshman Stephen Zimmerman, so the Lobos really needed for both Tim Williams and Obij Aget to stay out of foul trouble if they were going to have a chance to win this game. Unfortunately, Big O got into foul trouble early in the second half, which left Tim with the task of being the primary defender down low. He had a tough time with that and ultimately picked up five fouls, all in the second half. Luckily, there aren’t really any other teams in the conference with the same level of ability down low, so hopefully that means the Lobos will be able to get away with playing four-guard lineups in most of their games, but this will be something the coaching staff needs to figure out before they play the Rebels again.
• The Lobos only had 14 turnovers in this game, but there are a couple of things that are misleading about that. First, the Rebels were able to get 24 points off of those 14 turnovers, which means that most of the turnovers were of the variety that allowed the Rebels to get out into transition. As I’ve mentioned before, not all turnovers are created equal, so those were of the “bad” variety. Also, the Lobos had a number of bad field goal attempts early in the shot clock, which might as well have been turnovers, and there wasn’t nearly as much ball movement as they’ve gotten when the offense is really working, which also reduced the turnover opportunities. The offense still has several things going for it, but there are definitely some things that need to be tightened up.

Up Next

The Lobos come back home to take on Wyoming this Saturday afternoon. This is the first game of a three-game stretch that is, on paper, the weakest part of the schedule. They still have to play the games, though.