Defense, bench help Lobos win to close nonconference play

Florida Gulf Coast came into the Pit on Sunday afternoon and jumped out to a 9-0 lead.

They left the Pit on a 9-0 run.

In the 34-minutes in between the 18-0 bookends, Eric Olen had few complaints with his team's performance in a 75-59 win in front of an announced crowd of 12,204 which saw the Lobos put a bow on nonconference play.

"Happy to get out of here with a win," Olen said Sunday afternoon. "A little bit of a slow start, not an ideal finish, but I thought everything in between was pretty good, specifically defensively."

The Lobos, 9-2 overall and opening Mountain West play on Saturday night against visiting San Jose State in the Pit, overcame first-half, game-ending injuries to starters Tomislav Buljan (apparent hamstring injury) and Chris Howell (wrist injury) and the absence (due to "personal reasons," per Olen) of reserve forward Kevin Patton Jr.

Four Lobos scored in double figures, led by Antonio Chol's 14. Not one FGCU player scored in double figures, and UNM outrebounded the visitors 44-29 with four players tying with a game-high seven rebounds. Most impressive, arguably, was UNM holding FGCU (5-6) to 35.1% shooting and 27.8% from 3-point range. The Eagles shot 10-of-36 from 3-point range, easily their most in a game this season against a Division I opponent.

Early on, it appeared the Lobos' defensive scheme of daring teams to shoot 3s while protecting the interior was going to bite them.

FGCU led 9-0 with 15:57 left in the first half off three 3-pointers.

But the Lobos stayed committed to their style of play, one that now ranks 363rd out of 365 Division I teams in opponent 3-point attempt rate (53.3% of opponents' shots in D-I games have been 3-pointers with the national average being just 39.8%).

After the Eagles' first six made field goals were 3-pointers (they were 6-of-15 at that point), they were just 4-of-21 (19.0%) from deep after that.

So did the coaching staff have to make a defensive adjustment after FGCU's hot start from the outside, or did the Lobos just buckle down and defend better within their scheme?

"It's kind of both," said Chol. "We're self-aware, you know? If somebody gets going, we'll be like, 'Yo, don't help off him.' ... And they only hit four for the rest of the game."

The Lobos didn't hold their first lead until a pair of JT Rock free throws, after one of his four offensive rebounds, put UNM up 18-16 with 6:55 left in the first half.

The Lobos took a 28-25 lead into halftime and never looked back.

By the time Luke Haupt hit a 3-point play with 13:00 left in the game, UNM was up 48-34, expanding that lead to as many as 25 late in the game before letting up on the gas with 2 1/2 minutes still on the clock.

That was when FGCU closed on that 9-0 run — just enough to give Olen plenty to keep his squad humble about over the next week entering league play.

"I think if you just look at the win-loss record, I think we feel pretty good about the position we're in (at the end of nonconference play)," Olen said. "I think if you look possession to possession, at how we're playing, we feel like there's a lot of room for growth and growth that needs to happen if we want to get to where we want to go, right?

"If this is a group that that has championship aspirations in the Mountain West, we're not at that level. We don't have the level of consistency we need there. We have to improve in a lot of areas, but we are capable of making that progress. And I think part of the reason we have the record we have at this point is because we've made progress since we've started ... so if we can continue to improve and make similar progress throughout the conference season, then I think we have the potential to compete at a high level, but we do have to make more progress."

Rock had another big game, especially in Buljan's absence, scoring 10 points with seven rebounds and two blocks in 20 minutes. Deyton Albury (14 points), Jake Hall (12) and  Haupt (seven points, four rebounds, six assists and three steals) all had big second halves.

Injuries

Howell, who left the game with 3:11 left in the first half holding his left wrist, did warm up for the second half, though it had already been decided he wouldn't play.

Buljan, who left with 1:57 left in the first half, was seen walking without help after the game.

In neither case did Olen say he had a good enough update to give any sort of timetable on their return.

Of Patton's absence, Olen said the team supports the player 100% in his being gone from Sunday's game, but would not elaborate.