Bairstow scored 17 points on 5 of 8 shooting and
hitting 7 of
10 free throws to keep UNM in the thick of the game. Greenwood scored four of his 13 points in the
final seconds to put the game away, including a jumper in the lane with nine second left to
break a 59-59
tie, then hit two free throws two seconds later to seal the win
for UNM.
"I thought Hugh stepped up huge tonight with
huge shots,"
said Lobo head coach Coach Steve Alford. "I thought Cam really
gave us a
lift with how he shot the ball. This is a hard place to play. We
knew this was
going to be a struggle and a fight."
Greenwood finished with a double-double,
pulling in a
game-high10 rebounds.
The Lobos, who entered the game ranked 20th in
the AP poll
and 22nd in the Coaches poll, took a nine-point lead on a three
pointer by
Jamal Fenton with 6:44 left in the game. But Wyoming used three-point shooting
to claw back into the game.
The Cowboys tied the game with 15 seconds left on a Riley Rabau three pointer of a UW miss following a
five-second call
against UNM’s Tony Snell, right before the bucket.
UNM came up the court and Greenwood casually
rose up in the
lane and sank the jumper to give UNM the lead back at 61-59. Then
Greenwood got
the chance to ice the game with free throws after Leonard Washington’s errant inbound
pass went out of bounds.
Wyoming (15-4, 2-4 Mountain West) hit 12 of 22
three
pointers (54%) in the game – almost 20 percentage points above
their season average
– keeping Wyoming in the game.
New Mexico (18-3, 5-1) started sluggishly,
falling behind
5-0 early before responding with a 12-0 run to take a 12-5 lead 12
minutes into
the game.
Wyoming gamely responded and took a 28-27 lead
into halftime
after a contested buzzer beater trey by Rabau following a
questionable missed
jumper by Alex Kirk.
Wyoming shot just 8 of 27 on shots inside the
three point
arc and was outrebounded 35-23. UNM also outscored the Cowboys
28-2 in the
paint.
New Mexico was buoyed by a 53.8% shooting in
the second half
(14 of 26) and finished hitting 25 of 52 (48.1%). Kendall Williams
added 12
points and six rebounds and Alex Kirk added 10 points and six
rebounds for UNM.
"We knew we could come in here and separate
ourselves
(from the rest of the league),” said Alford. “We knew if we could
give Wyoming
its fifth loss and that would make it tough (on Wyoming's MW
chances). We had a
chance to make a statement tonight."
Wyoming got a team high 11 points from Derrious
Gillmore,
who scored 15 points on 5 of 7 three-point shooting. Leonard
Washington and
Grabau scored 11 points.
"I thought this was a pivotal game for us if we
were
going to have something to say (about the 2013 MW championship),"
said
Alford. "This gives us a chance.”