Lobos pull rank on Rebels

In his return home to Las Vegas, Darington Hobson helped New Mexico earn a monumental road victory that for a long time appeared as if it would come too easily.

Hobson's 16 points and 13 rebounds lifted the 15th-ranked Lobos to a 76-66 victory over 23rd-ranked UNLV before a crowd of 18,044 at the Thomas & Mack Center on Wednesday night.

The strength of Hobson inside, and Phillip McDonald's 3-pointer from the corner with 2:42 remaining, buried the Rebels and broke a three-way tie atop the Mountain West Conference.

"We knew it was going to be tough coming in here," said Hobson, who was born in Las Vegas and attended Western High School as a freshman. "It's a great win. This keeps us on top of the pack."

New Mexico (22-3, 8-2) took over sole possession of the conference lead, a half-game ahead of Brigham Young, and UNLV (19-5, 7-3) dropped to third.

The Rebels trimmed an 18-point second-half deficit to two on Tre'Von Willis' two free throws with 3:39 left.

Hobson, a 6-foot-7-inch left-hander, drove the left baseline and tipped in his own miss. Willis tried to counter but was knocked to the floor on a drive and lost the ball to the Lobos' Dairese Gary.

"There was contact and he fell, but it's a moot point at this time," UNLV coach Lon Kruger said.

Hobson passed to the corner to McDonald, who set his feet and sank the biggest shot of the game, a 3 that put New Mexico on top 70-63.

Matt Shaw pulled the Rebels within four on a 3-pointer with 2:25 to go, but the Lobos' next possession was an example of what proved to be UNLV's undoing. A.J. Hardeman scored in the paint after New Mexico chased down offensive rebounds on misses by Hobson and Gary.

"We got outworked, and that's not what we're about," Willis said. "We've got to compete harder; there's no other way around it."

The Lobos were more aggressive and superior athletically, and it showed in their 45-23 rebounding advantage. Hobson and McDonald combined for eight of the team's 17 offensive rebounds.

Roman Martinez had 16 points and nine rebounds for New Mexico, which also got 15 points from Gary and 13 from McDonald.

"We were fighting from a deficit all night long," Kruger said. "New Mexico pretty much whipped us in all aspects of the game."

The Lobos set the tone early as Martinez and Hobson each hit a 3-pointer, and McDonald's back-to-back jumpers made the score 10-2.

New Mexico sank its first five 3-point attempts, with the last from Nate Garth pushing the cushion to 27-12. The Rebels rallied to within 31-25 on Shaw's 3-pointer with 3:29 remaining.

With the fans in a frenzy, the Lobos withstood the charge and rebuilt the lead to 40-28 at halftime.

"We came out with a lot of confidence and played like we didn't have anything to lose," said Hobson, who shot 7-for-10 and hit two 3-pointers. "We wanted to play loose and play with confidence because that's what they did on our home court."

New Mexico, in avenging a 74-62 home loss to UNLV on Jan. 9, played with determination from the outset.

McDonald's 3-pointer put the Rebels in their deepest hole, 61-43, with just under 12 minutes to go.

A 3-pointer by Willis started to resuscitate the Rebels at the 11:11 mark, and Oscar Bellfield followed by converting a four-point play to slice UNLV's deficit to 61-52 midway through the half.

Willis drove for a layup to pull UNLV within 63-58 with 4:54 to go. After two free throws by Gary, Bellfield buried a 3 to make the score 65-61 with 4:16 left.

"We dug ourselves a hole, and it's hard coming back and winning from a deficit like that," Willis said. "I didn't make shots when I had open looks. As a team, we didn't make shots and didn't make enough plays."

Bellfield scored 15 points to lead UNLV. He shot 4-for-10 from 3-point range, where the Rebels were 10-for-30.

Willis, who had 33 points in UNLV's blowout victory over BYU on Saturday, was held to 13 on 4-for-13 shooting. He added 10 assists.

"Tre has been playing great, so he's going to get a lot of attention from defenses," Kruger said. "He didn't get some shots to go."

uFFFC

NEW MEXICO

76

uFFFC

UNLV

66

■ KEY: Darington Hobson shot 7-for-10 and had 16 points and 13 rebounds to lead the No. 15 Lobos.

■ NEXT: UNLV at San Diego State, 1 p.m. Saturday, Versus (38), KWWN-AM (1100)

New Mexico 76

UNLV 66

NEW MEXICO Min FG-A FT-A R A PF TP

Hardeman 24 1-5 2-2 6 1 1 4

Martinez 37 5-9 2-2 9 0 1 16

Hobson 23 7-10 0-1 13 4 4 16

Gary 36 3-10 9-9 2 6 2 15

McDonald 38 5-12 0-0 8 2 0 13

Garth 16 3-6 0-0 1 1 1 8

Fenton 5 0-1 0-0 1 0 0 0

Brown 21 2-4 0-0 1 0 2 4

TOTALS 200 26-57 13-14 45 14 11 76

Field goals-45.6%. Free throws-92.9%.

Three-point goals-11-21, .524 (Martinez 4-8, McDonald 3-6, Hobson 2-3, Garth 2-3, Fenton 0-1). Team rebounds-4. Blocked shots-1 (Martinez). Turnovers-12 (Brown 3, Gary 2, Hobson 2, Garth 2, Hardeman, McDonald, Fenton). Steals-4 (Hobson, McDonald, Garth, Gary).

UNLV Min FG-A FT-A R A PF TP

Stanback 34 2-8 0-0 4 0 1 4

Massamba 15 1-2 1-2 1 0 2 3

Bellfield 36 5-11 1-1 3 3 3 15

Wallace 26 3-6 0-0 1 3 3 9

Willis 38 4-13 4-6 4 10 3 13

Marshall 16 2-3 0-0 2 2 2 4

Jones 6 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Hawkins 4 1-2 0-0 0 0 1 2

Shaw 17 5-9 0-0 3 1 0 12

Santee 8 2-4 0-2 2 0 1 4

TOTALS 200 25-58 6-11 23 19 16 66

Field goals-43.1%. Free throws-54.5%.

Three-point goals-10-30, .333 (Bellfield 4-10, Wallace 3-6, Shaw 2-5, Willis 1-5, Marshall 0-1, Hawkins 0-1, Stanback 0-2). Team rebounds-3. Blocked shots-3 (Santee 2, Stanback). Turnovers-6 (Willis 3, Marshall 2, Bellfield). Steals-6 (Willis 3, Marshall, Stanback, Jones).

A-18,044. Officials-Randy McCall, Mike Reed, Darron George. Technical fouls-None.

New Mexico 40 36 - 76

UNLV 28 38 - 66

Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907.