Darrington Hobson scored 17 points, including a putback with 16.9
seconds remaining, and Dairese Gary made two free throws with 2.5
seconds left and No. 12 New Mexico beat feisty Air Force 59-56 on
Saturday.
The Lobos (25-3, 11-2 Mountain West) logged plenty of
important marks with this win, their school-record 11th straight in
conference play and the school's best-ever record through 28 games.
But it was not easy, not with Air Force (9-16, 1-11) using
its methodical halfcourt offense to throw a wrench into the gears
of one of the nation's hottest teams.
Grant Parker scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half,
including a layup with 27.8 seconds left that put the Falcons ahead
56-55. But Gary drove and found Hobson on New Mexico's ensuing
possession, and a sellout crowd at The Pit exhaled a major sigh of
relief.
Nobody wearing red expected the league's last-place team to
take the conference leader to the wire, especially since the
Falcons were coming off a 91-48 loss at BYU one week ago. Air Force
has lost four straight and 11 of 12, but this one could have gone
either way.
The Falcons missed a chance to retake the lead after Hobson's
basket. Avery Merriex drove and put up a roller that bounced off
the rim. Michael Lyons, who scored 11 points, missed a follow-up.
After Gary was fouled and made both free throws, the Falcons
were down to their final chance. Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds
called a timeout to set up a play, but Hobson got his finger on the
inbounds pass to deflect it harmlessly to the court as the horn
went off.
Air Force is the only opponent that doesn't get booed coming
down the ramp at The Pit, but the Lobos, who came in averaging 77.7
points a game, were a little too gracious to their visitors.
The Falcons, wracked by injuries all season, took a 14-10
lead midway through the first half and went up 20-16 after Zach
Bohannon's layup with 5:25 left.
New Mexico coach Steve Alford had cautioned during the week
against playing at Air Force's pace, but that's exactly what
happened.
New Mexico went 10 minutes without a field goal until Nate
Garth's 3-pointer with 47 seconds left in the half ended a streak
of eight straight misses from 3-point range, part of a 12-2 burst
in the final 5 minutes of the half that put the Lobos up 28-22.
Tough as it was for the Lobos to grind it out, it could serve
as a good lesson.
Alford said this win was reminiscent of New Mexico's 81-79
double-overtime victory last season at Colorado State, a game the
Lobos trailed 62-57 with 13 seconds to go but tied on Daniel Faris'
reverse layup just before the regulation buzzer.
