The sun still rises in the east, water is still wet, and the Lobos are still better than the Aggies at basketball. For the 15th time in the 18 games since the Alford/Neal era began, the Lobos beat the Aggies, this time with a convincing 79-61 victory. With this win, the Lobos moved to 7-2 on the season, remained undefeated in the Pit, and continued looking like a team on the rise.
Game Recap
The game started out looking like it would be a good one, with the two teams trading baskets through the first media timeout, where the Lobos had a slim 9-7 advantage. The Lobos were having some difficulties running their offense, best exemplified by Cullen having to jack up (and make) a 30-footer when the shot clock expired after a near unforced backcourt violation, and Pascal Siakam looked every bit of future pro that I think he is. So, I thought that this might have ended up being a classic rivalry game. However, about halfway through the first half, Joe Furstinger set up for a screen in the backcourt and Cullen lured his man into that screen. His defender, Ian Baker, didn’t see the screen coming and ran into Joe at full speed, sending him to the floor with a scary neck injury. Thankfully, he was able to walk off of the court unassisted, but it was clear that he was done for the game. So, with the Aggies now without their second best player and only other consistent scorer besides Siakam, the Aggies didn’t really seem to have much of a chance.
And that’s basically how the rest of the game played out. The Lobos built up a double digit lead early in the second half and then coasted to a comfortable win the rest of the way. The Aggies didn’t do themselves many favors, as Siakam managed to pick up his fourth foul with 17 minutes to go, which made him tentative on defense, and the team as a whole was awful from the free throw line. Despite drawing a disproportionate number of fouls in the second half, the Aggies only managed to go 7-19 from the charity stripe in the half, which kind of made the game a long, drawn-out affair. On the Lobos’ side, although it wasn’t the best they’ve looked all season as a team, everyone who got into the game played pretty well, with the starters in particular looking like five of the best six players on the court (Siakam being the other). All in all for the Lobos, it was an okay offensive performance, a very good defensive performance, and one of the most casual blowouts that I can remember seeing in this rivalry.
Players of the Game
For each game, I’m choosing my top three players of the game and giving them points (3 for first, 2 for second, and 1 for third). We’ll keep track of the points all season.
- Elijah Brown (20 points on the season): Elijah once again proved to be more than the Aggies could handle, finishing the game with an overall line of 20 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, and a steal. The closest thing he had to a blemish in this game was his 3-5 performance from the line. Elijah’s starting to play to the level where he’ll not only be expected to end up on an all-conference team, he’ll have a good shot at being the conference player of the year.
- Tim Williams (17 points on the season): Early in the second half, when Pascal Siakam picked up his fourth foul, Cullen started yelling something at Tim and I think it was the same thing that was going through my mind: it was time for Tim to take over. And that’s exactly what he did. After an okay first half, Tim took over in the second half to pick up 12 points on 6-8 shooting and grabbing 4 rebounds. There were a few scary moments where he got a little banged up, so it’s a relief that he seems to be alright. He’s an important part of the Lobo offense and will be one of the main reasons that this team will compete for the MWC title.
- Cullen Neal (9 points on the season): Cullen has been a little inconsistent shooting the ball this season, but even when he’s off, he’s a weapon on offense. This game, he had a solid first half to score 10 points, making a couple of memorable deep threes in the process, but was a little quiet in terms of scoring in the second half, ending up with only 3 more points. Regardless, he was excellent distributing the ball, ending the game with a career-high 9 assists. After a bit of a slow start this season, he’s now sitting at almost exactly a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio, which is pretty good for a point guard. He’s also looking better on defense recently, helping him affect the game even when he’s not shooting particularly well. On a side note, shout out to the lady behind me who kept yelling for Cullen to shoot the ball whenever he touched it. It was a nice change of pace from most of the other comments I hear about him from people sitting behind me.
Scattered Thoughts
- For those of you who haven’t yet, this would be a good time to jump onto the Lobo bandwagon. On KenPom, they’re currently the highest ranked Mountain West team and are projected to win the conference. In fact, if they have a good performance next week in Hawaii, they’ll put themselves in a good position to earn an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament. I know that some people lost their faith in the program after the disappointing season they had last year, but this team is making it look like that was an anomaly, not the start of a trend.
- It was Dane Kuiper’s birthday, so it was good to see him get some action in the second half. He made the most of it, looking as confident as I think we’ve seen him all season. He grabbed 3 rebounds and had a nice drive for a layup on a fast break that showed off some of his athleticism. I know that he’s a little buried on the depth chart right now, but I’m still really excited about his potential. If he keeps playing like he did in this game, I think that he’ll start carving out a little more time for himself.
- I think that we’re now up to four different timeout activities where the cameras pan the crowd and ask the fans to pose. We have the traditional kiss cam, a smile cam, a flexing cam, and a selfie cam, the last of which is kind of ridiculous as it is just about as far away from being a selfie as possible. Anyway, it feels like a bit much. I never thought that I’d be nostalgic for it, but I kind of wish that they’d replace one of them by bringing up the dance session. Maybe they think it’s just not the same now that Lamont Smith’s daughters aren’t dancing in the aisles anymore…
Up Next
The Lobos end their out-of-conference home games on Saturday against Rice. If they win this game, which they should, they’ll enter conference play undefeated at home.