Wow. A game that was billed to be a key matchup between two of the top teams in the conference instead turned into one to be remembered, as the Lobos managed to turn a 15-point deficit with six minutes remaining into a two-point win. This win was not only important for the Lobos to keep pace at the top of the standings, it might end up being the defining moment of the season.

Game Recap

Because this game had such a wild finish, it would be easy to forget the other 34 minutes of action, but trust me, they happened. The game start out with the Lobos executing their game plan to perfection, attacking the basket on offense and forcing tough shots on defense. They were rewarded with an early 8 point advantage, with all of their points coming off of layups, dunks, and free throws. The Broncos were able to go on a little run of their own to cut the lead to one but then Dane Kuiper threw down a monstrous dunk, which unexpected served as a starter pistol for a three-point shooting contest. Over the next five minutes, the Lobos managed to make five straight threes, coming from Cullen, Dane, and Jordan, which should have given the team a huge lead. Unfortunately, Anthony Drmic decided to get in on the action, hitting five threes of his own in that span. When the dust settled, it felt like no one was really sure what happened, but somehow the game was tied. A quick 5-0 run to end the half gave the Lobos a 42-37 lead, but it felt like this game was going to be a wild one.

For most of the second half, that feeling slowly slipped away. Boise clamped down on defense and ramped things up on offense, giving them a 14-0 run to turn a 5-point Lobo lead into a 9-point Bronco advantage. The Lobos fought back, though, to cut the deficit to 4 and keep them within striking distance. Then the wheels kind of fell off. Over the next 7 minutes, Boise went on a 17-6 run to seize control of the game with a 15 point lead with only 6:01 left. Coach Neal called a timeout to regroup and apparently to let hundreds of fans head up the stairs to go home. I’m sure you know what happened next.

It started out innocently enough, with Tim Williams only making one of two free throw attempts and Sam getting a runner to roll in to cut the lead to 12. Just a minute later, Coach Neal made a couple of substitutions to put an unlikely lineup on the floor: Elijah Brown, Tim Williams, Dane Kuiper, Joe Furstinger, and Tim Jacobs. Although we haven’t seen much if any of that lineup in the past, it completely worked. It allowed the Lobos to switch to a man-to-man defense that shut down the Broncos and it still had enough weapons on the floor on offense. Specifically, they still had Elijah out there. In the last 4:05 of the game, EB scored 13 points by doing what he does best: nailing threes and drawing fouls. That, along with all of the defensive stops and free throw misses by the Broncos, gave the Lobos a 79-78 advantage with 30 seconds to go. The Broncos had an opportunity for a last shot, but Tim W. blocked Mikey Thompson’s shot with 8 seconds to go, got the ball, and then made a free throw to put the Lobos up by 2. Drmic was able to get a three-point attempt off with a couple of seconds left, but the ball hit the side of the rim and found its way into the hands of EB, sealing the win for the home team.

Players of the Game

1. Elijah Brown (51 points on the season): With six minutes remaining, I thought that Elijah was in danger of missing this section for only the 5^th time this season, as he had 13 points on 4-14 shooting, including 1-7 from behind the arc. He then scored 13 of the Lobos’ last 19 points on 3-3 shooting, all threes, leading the Lobos’ incredible comeback. Silly me for doubting him.
2. Tim Williams (54 points on the season): Tim had a really nice stat line of 18 points, 6 boards, and 4 blocks, but I don’t think that completely tells the story of how well he played. It was clear that Boise was going to do everything in their power to slow him down, whether it was selling out to deny him the ball or to send an extra defender or two to stop him, but he was still able to beat the Boise defense. He was also instrumental during the comeback, highlighted by a block to preserve the Lobos’ late one-point lead.
3. (Tie) Dane Kuiper (3 points on the season);
   (Tie) Joe Furstinger (2 points on the season);
   (Tie) Tim Jacobs (2 points on the season): With about four minutes left in the game and the Lobos still down by 12, Coach Neal went with a lineup of these three, EB, and Tim W. Now, I may be wrong on this, but I think that’s the first time we’ve seen that lineup all year. It seemed pretty effective, to say the least. Now, obviously EB exploded offensively during that time period, but it wouldn’t have mattered if all five guys hadn’t played their hearts out on defense. Individually, Dane continued his recent good play, picking up 7 points in his 18 minutes, including the first of what I hope are many crowd-igniting dunks. Joe played as well as we’ve seen him play all season, providing energy and hustle off the bench while playing what I thought was the best defense we’ve ever seen out of him. And as for Jacobs, he ran the offense well, but more importantly he was disruptive on defense, forcing a few turnovers in his limited time on the court.

Scattered Thoughts

• Want to get an idea of how packed the 2-7 positions are in the conference? If Boise had held on to the win, they would have been in sole possession of second place. Instead, they’re now in 5^th. The conference tournament is going to be so wild and I can’t wait.
• The bench has been somewhat maligned this year for their lack of production, so it was great to see strong performances from everyone who came off the bench in this one. We already covered Dane, Joe, and Tim J., but X and Jordan also played really well. X has really grown into his role as a smallball power-forward, particularly excelling on the offensive glass. This month, he’s averaging about 2 offensive rebounds per game after averaging less than one per game previously. He also is able to take advantage of mismatches, taking more defenders off the dribble than I remember seeing out of him previously. Jordan played great in the first half, subbing in for Cullen after he got into some foul trouble and then playing a little bit in replacement for EB with Cullen on the floor. He’s starting to show those glimpses of his potential more regularly, which gets me excited to see how much more he can develop not just in the next few years, but even over the course of the next few weeks.
• If you happen to wade over to the Boise State side of things, you’ll see plenty of comments about the officiating costing them the game (including from the coach). I’m not sure that’s true, to be honest, but I do think that the officials had a rough night overall. There were enough strange calls either way that if either team had lost by just a few points, their fans would have plenty of things to point to as calls that cost them the game. Sadly, games officiated like this are starting to feel like the norm rather than the exception. The color-commentator for the game, Steve Lappas, suggested that one issue is that these refs are working almost every night and they are likely to be getting tired at this point, having had to fly around the country and officiate games for three months straight. That makes a lot of sense to me, but the only fix for that is to hire a bunch of new refs to cut down on individual workloads. That might actually make officiating worse for a bit, as experience is absolutely valuable to have in a ref, but in the long run, I think that it would ultimately be a good thing.

Up Next

The Lobos head up to Colorado for a two-game road trip, starting with a matchup against Air Force on Saturday. Although Air Force hasn’t had a particularly good season, they are always a tough place to play at and have won three straight at home. The Lobos can’t afford to take this game lightly.