Men's basketball: Lobos rout Grambling for 600th win
11/20/2008
Good defense.
Good shooting.
Terrible opponent.
The University of New Mexico had all three in a 96-50 nonconference men's basketball win over Grambling State in front of a crowd of 12,066 in The Pit on Thursday.
It was the opening game of the Cancun Challenge, a tournament that eventually will be played in Cancun, Mexico (Nov. 29-30).
It also was UNM's 600th win in The Pit and 33rd straight nonconference home win.
That fact never was in doubt after the Lobos (2-1) cruised through a 15-2 run and a 17-3 run in the first half and led 49-18 at half.
"We are nowhere near where we've got to be yet, but we made some strides — in particular defensively," UNM head coach Steve Alford said. "I think that is what we were looking for."
The Lobos limited Grambling State to a 26.2 percent shooting night that was somewhat self-inflicted.
UNM was gunning from the outside early, stroking seven of its first nine three-point attempts. Chad Toppert went back-to-back from beyond the arc and Dairese Gary followed that with his own back-to-back treyfest.
In all, UNM went 12 of 23 from three-point land.
Grambling State was as tame as could be in the first 20 minutes, scoring on just 7 of 30 field goal attempts. The Tigers (0-2) not only were outrebounded 50-33, but they also failed from beyond the arc, hitting just 6 of 25 three-point attempts in the game.
Ibrahim Kpaka led the Tigers with 17 points and Andrew Prestley added 10.
For the Lobos, Daniel Faris had 18 points for game-high honors, while both Roman Martinez and Phillip McDonald each had 15. Toppert finished with 12 points off the bench and A.J. Hardeman went 5 of 6 from the field to finish with 10 points.
UNM senior Tony Danridge had a tough shooting night with only 3 points, but he dished out a career-high eight assists, seven of which came in the first half.
"It was a night where it didn't click for Tony," Alford said. "He missed some shots he normally makes, but to his credit, he hit the open man."
New Mexico led by as many as 50 points in the final 2:32 and suffered just one setback the entire game. Gary, a sophomore point guard, took a head to the floor on a transition layup with 4:12 left in the game. Gary, who didn't return, finished with 11 points, six assists, four rebounds and one big headache.
Gary fell hard to the floor shortly after he put up his shot, and remained on the floor for a few minutes as trainers attended to him.
"I told Dairese that he had to drive to the basket like a point guard and not like a fullback," Alford said.
Gary is expected to play on Saturday against Central Florida, another Cancun Challenge game that will be played in The Pit.