The University of New Mexico wanted to leave nothing to question during the postseason.
After losing to No. 6 Utah 82-80 in overtime of a quarterfinal of the Mountain West Championships late Thursday, the third-seeded Lobos probably didn't.
Instead of advancing and taking a step closer to the NCAA Tournament, the Lobos are on the outside looking in. The 65-team field will be announced Sunday.
Following back-to-back-to-back dunks by both teams, UNM's Darren Prentice drove to the basket and got swatted by Luke Nevill. The Utah 7-footer had two dunks on his side and UNM's J.R. Giddens had the other. That forced UNM to foul with less than 10 seconds left.
It was 81-80 when Utah's Lawrence Borha made a free throw after missing one, and the Lobos inbounded to Giddens with 5.6 seconds left.
Giddens drove the length of the court and took it to the hoop but his underhand scoop bounced off the rim as the final horn sounded.
This was the second overtime game between the two teams. UNM won 77-67 on Jan. 22 in The Pit.
Giddens was far from failure. He scored all of UNM's eight points in overtime.
He scored a game-high 28 points and pulled down a game-high 17 rebounds and went 10 of 15 from the foul line.
But he ended up one shot short.
2 comments:
Great articles to give some perspective on Giddens. Thanks for posting them. I love the fact that he was averaging almost 9 boards a game. Shows desire and toughness. I get the feeling that this pick is more insurance for in case Posey bolts than to replace Tony.
I think you are right, but I like his potential on both sides of the ball.
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