Defensive Breakdowns Cost UNM a Chance at Outright Mountain West Title in Loss to Colorado State
Junior guard Brendon Rechsteiner celebrates after Colorado State’s 82-74 win over UNM in the Pit on Wednesday. Photo: CSU Athletics
The scouting report on Colorado State was supposed to be guard the 3-point line.
Things did not go according to plan for UNM men’s basketball in its disappointing 82-74 loss to CSU on Senior Night in the final game in the Pit this season.
Colorado State absolutely carved up UNM’s defense for most of the game and shot a blistering 62% from the field to go along with 19 assists on 24 made field goals.
“I felt like I did not put our guys in a position to be successful early in the game,” Eric Olen said. “I gave them a plan that didn’t set them up for success. This is on me for sure.”
Yes, UNM did give up several open 3-pointers to CSU’s big-men Kyle Jorgenson and Rashaad Mbemba, but to be fair, neither were high-volume 3-point shooters coming into this game. While Jorgenson was 41% on the season, he was only 4-of-13 in his last five games. Jorgenson finished with a team high 19 points and was 5-of-8 from deep
Mbemba had only taken five 3-pointers all year and made two of them. He went 3-of-4 against the Lobos with 9 points, but was almost too wide open on nearly all of his attempts.
“When he shot it that well early that made it really difficult to use JT the way we wanted to,” Olen said.
UNM did appear to adjust to CSU’s 3-point shooting as the Rams only knocked down one 3-pointer in the final 16 minutes of the game. By that point, UNM was already in a large double-digit whole and the damage had been done.
Perhaps the more concerning defensive breakdown was the amount of wide open layups CSU got throughout the game. The Rams were 9-of-12 on layups/dunks at the rim, and several times UNM’s defenders appeared to miscommunicate on switches or left cutters wide open underneath the basket for an easy two.
“Just a lack of execution on our part,” Olen said when asked to elaborate on why CSU was given so many open shots.
Olen also noted that he did not have Albury available during all practices this week to do a full game plan for CSU, which may have contributed to UNM’s inability to execute defensively.
The Lobos forced 20 CSU turnovers, and had 16 steals that led to 26 points off turnovers and 20 fast break points. But CSU shot the ball so efficiently and also made 23 of it’s 31 free throws, that UNM’s defensive disruption was not enough to overcome its other shortcomings defensively.
UNM’s offense was arguably just as bad in the first half with only 25 points. The Lobos shot only 18% from the 3-point line (2-of-11), 40% from the field, and had eight turnovers at the halftime break.
“We didn’t get enough movement, we didn't get connect actions the way we want to,” Olen said. “That left us in some one-on-one’s. It was a little bit of a flashback to that Nevada game, where we got a little stagnant, lost some one-on-ones, and the ball security issues early were problematic.”
The Lobos did make a run in the second half that cut the 19-point lead down to four with under a minute left.
UNM forced 5 turnovers during a critical 3 ½ minute stretch mid-way though the second half which led to several downhill drives for by senior guard Deyton Albury, who finished with a team high 22 points, on 8-of-9 shooting to go along with 4 steals.
Albury was poked in the eye in Saturday’s game vs. SDSU and was in quite a bit of discomfort throughout the week coming into the game according to Olen.
Albury became a hit on social media for rocking sunglasses during the game.
“I knew I had to do something, there was no way I was sitting out this game,” Albury said. “Just had to figure out a way, and come up with the goggles, and they just said to wear them.”
An Albury 3-pointer made the score 75-71 CSU with 38 seconds left. UNM fouled on the ensuing possession, and in the final minute, CSU shot 7-of-8 from the free throw line to ice the game.
Tomislav Buljan recorded his thirteenth double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Buljan has now set a new freshman record for double-doubles, breaking JT Toppin’s previous record of twelve.
Jake Hall had another quiet double-figure scoring game with 13 points to go along with 3 steals and 3 rebounds. Hall’s 16th consecutive game scoring in double figures breaking Kenny Tomas’ previous record of 15 set his freshman season in 1995-96.
With the loss, UNM remains in second place in the Mountain West Conference standings, but the Lobos blew an opportunity to win an outright regular season Mountain West title and can only get a share of it with a win over Utah State on Saturday.
The Lobos are guaranteed to be seeded at Nos. 1-3 in the Mountain West conference tournament, but they could play either GCU, CSU, Boise State, Nevada or UNLV in the Quarterfinal round, none of which will be an easy out.
