Kirk and Bairstow combined to score 32 points
and pull in 18
rebounds for New Mexico, which entered the game ranked 23rd in the
ESPN/USA
Today Coaches poll and 25th in the Associated Press poll. Kirk registered his
second double-double
in a row, scoring 16 points on 6 of 8 shooting and grabbing 13
rebounds. Bairstow
came off the bench to score 16 points and pulled down five
rebounds. Tony Snell
added 13 points, five rebounds and five assists.
"They just continue to get better,” said head
coach
Steve Alford of Kirk and Bairstow. “They tried going at us early
and I thought
the guys did a tremendous job – both Alex and Cam managed to stay
out of foul
trouble.
“We’re just getting great production from our
two bigs,
especially in the beginning when they were going at us inside and
they not only
managed to hold their own but they were performing pretty well
themselves,”
concluded Alford.
Travis Smith paced Mercer with 15 points and
six rebounds
and Jakob Gollon added 10 points and six rebounds as the Bears
finished with a
22 of 59 shooting performance (37.9%) and hit 7 of 21 (33.3%) on
three
pointers.
New Mexico opened the game with a 19-5 run
keyed largely by
baskets by Bairstow and a Snell three-pointer. But Mercer managed
to chip away
at the lead by gumming up the UNM offense and turning the game
into a grinding
affair. The Bear cut the UNM lead to 24-16. New Mexico looked to
extend the
lead going into the halftime, going on a 7-2 run, but the Bears
scored four
points in the final 51 seconds and the Lobos halftime lead was cut
to 31-22.
The two teams traded baskets for the first nine
minutes of
the second half as the game again devolved into a grind it out
style affair.
But New Mexico engineered a 29-5 run over the next 10 minutes of
the game by
turning up the defense and consistently getting the ball inside.
By the time
the run ended with a dunk by Bairstow, the score was 73-43 in
favor of the
Lobos. Mercer made the score respectable closing with a 15-3 run
against UNM’s
third stringers.
"I think defensively we've seen a lot of
progress,”
said Alford. “We're not fouling and we're making things really
difficult on
opponents. We're taking away what they want to do. I think the
guys are just
doing a lot of good things. We've got some tough travel ahead of
us so I hope
the players are able to get some good rest because I'm from
Indiana and that's
not an easy trip to make."
The Lobos travel to play the Indiana State
Sycamores
Saturday at 12:05 pm MT.
Starting guard Kendall Williams scored just two
points for
the game but added six assists with just two turnovers. Sophomore
guard Hugh Greenwood also contributed with seven points and eight rebounds
and junior
guard Demetrius Walker came off the bench to score eight points.
New Mexico
shot 16 of 31 (51.6%) in the second half and 45% (27-60 for the
game. The Lobos
were a bit lackluster from the free throw line, however hitting 17
of 26
(65.4%) from the charity stripe – a season low – after drawing 25
fouls and
committing only 16 fouls for the game.
Alford addressed the criticism of consistency
from his
guards that have risen from fans and media alike.
"You guys think of consistency differently than
I do
and I keep getting a lot of Tony Snell questions,” said Alford.
“In this
home-stand he has 16 assists and 3 turnovers and that's pretty
good, I'll take
that. But whether Tony takes 4 shots or 13 that stuff varies game
to game,
Kendall didn't take a field goal tonight so I'm not going to go
home and wonder
`what's wrong with Kendall Williams?' That's our team; we've got a
deep team
that you're not going to have all six playing at a high level
offensively every
night.
“I just thought we did a really good job
defensively and in
the second half it got out offense going,” said Alford. “I'm
pleased with the
effort these guys gave tonight."
With the loss, Mercer fell to 3-4 on the
season.