Lobos fall short, squander second-half rally in San Diego

SAN DIEGO, Cali. — There would be no sweet homecoming celebration for Eric Olen and a UNM Lobos roster full of southern California transplants.

Miles Byrd's defense, and a backfired decision to foul with the lead, ended up costing the UNM Lobos in a dramatic 83-79 loss to the San Diego State Aztecs in the final game the two Mountain West rivals will play for the foreseeable future inside Viejas Arena.

"Anytime we lose, we feel like it's a missed opportunity," said Olen, the first-year Lobos coach who spent the previous 21 years coaching at UC San Diego. "We feel like if we play well, we can win every single night."

SDSU's win, coupled with No. 23 Utah State losing at Grand Canyon earlier in the day, puts the Aztecs — the preseason favorite, who most agree underperformed in nonconference play — in their familiar spot atop the Mountain West standings at 7-0 in conference (14-4 overall). The Lobos (14-4 overall), fall to 5-2 in league play and are tied for third in the league.

After erasing a 15-point second-half deficit and taking a 79-77 lead thanks to a monstrous second half by Lobo forward Tomislav Buljan, the Lobos decided to foul — up two — Aztecs starting center Miles Heide with 56.8 seconds left in the game with the expectation, or at least the hope, that he'd miss and the Lobos would get the ball back with the lead.

Heide, a 38.1% free throw shooter on the season, hit both of his free throws, tying the game in the final minute and leading to an eruption from the announced sell-out crowd of 12,414 — a crowd that was well short of that in actual attendance with school not yet back in session on the Mesa.

"I told him to do that," UNM coach Eric Olen said of the decision to foul Heide — playing the numbers that the decision was in the Lobos' best interest. "Heide shoots below 40% from the free throw line and I felt like if he gave us one of those, we have the ball in the lead. You know, we're in a good position there. So, credit to Miles for knocking down a couple big free throws there."

UNM had trailed 48-35 at halftime and a Byrd 3-pointer early in the second half pushed the lead to 51-36 — the largest lead of the game — when the Lobos, led by Buljan, battled back.

The 24-year-old Lobos freshman scored 18 of his team-high 20 points and grabbed 10 of his game-high 14 rebounds in the second half to lead the Lobos back. He also had four steals and a blocked shot.

His dunk with 3:33 left tied the game at 75-75. A Heide dunk put SDSU back up with 2:55 left before Buljan scored the game's next four points for a 79-77 lead.

Then came the foul, and the backfired results, followed by SDSU's B.J. Davis scoring with 10 second left in the game and a pair of Reese Water-Dixon free throws with 2.4 left on the clock for the final margin.

In the nip-and-tuck final few minutes, Byrd looked every bit the part of the preseason Mountain West Player of the Year, finishing with a final stat line of 21 points, eight rebounds, three assists, three steals and four blocked shots in 31 minutes on the court.

"I told him in the handshake line, that was a really great performance," Olen said. "I thought he made a ton of plays — a ton of winning plays — blocks that saved baskets, steals that led to baskets. He hit big shots."

Byrd blocked an Antonio Chol 3-point try with 1:51 left and blocked a Tajavis Miller layup with 1:19 remaining. While both prevented Lobo scores, neither ultimately resulted in the Aztecs scoring at the other end.

The same could not be said for his steal of Buljan when fighting through a screen with 37 seconds left in the game. That steal led to Davis scoring at the other end to put SDSU for good.

Three Lobos besides Buljan scored in double figures — Jake Hall scoring 15 to go along with five assists, followed by Chol with 12 and Luke Haupt with 11.

Starting point guard Deyton Albury finished with nine points and  six turnovers all in the first half. He did not see the floor in the final 7:47 of the game, though Olen did not indicate that had anything to do with the turnovers.

"At the end we kind of have whoever we feel like gives us the best chance," Olen said. "I thought Uriah (Tenette) was really doing a nice job guarding the ball and having a little extra shooting out there around Tomislav, who was playing well and we felt like he was going to draw some attention was really the crux of that."

The Aztecs bench outscored the short-handed Lobos 37-12. UNM's Chris Howell missed his seventh consecutive game with an oblique injury and reserve Kevin Patton Jr. remains away from the team due to personal issues.

With SDSU moving to the Pac-12 next season and Aztecs head coach Brian Dutcher already saying he doesn't plan to schedule nonconference games at high elevation, like in Albuquerque, there are no plans for the teams to play again without being in the same league.

Reach Geoff Grammer at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.