DENVER -- BYU's season of ups and downs finally came to an end as the Cougars fell to the Mountain West Conference's hottest team, New Mexico, 85-71 in the Pepsi Center at the MWC Tournament.
New Mexico has now won seven straight games and is 24-3 with star player Danny Granger in the lineup.
"New Mexico had too many threats for us to handle tonight," said BYU head coach Steve Cleveland. "We played as hard as we could, but the game didn't go our way."
The Cougars fought hard early in the first half, building their largest lead at the 16:30 mark to take a 9-4 advantage. Jared Jensen dominated the Lobos in the post, scoring eight of his 19 points to keep the Cougars' lead for over eight minutes of the half.
The Lobos eventually heated up from the three-point line thanks to Alfred Neale, who finished the half 3-for-3 from beyond the arc. Neale's final three and 11th point came late in the half, giving New Mexico a 14-point lead. Fortunately for BYU, Brock Reichner would answer right back to Neale's three-pointer, connecting on a deep three to send the Cougars into the locker time at halftime down 11 points, 39-28.
In the second half, senior Mike Hall delivered a three-point basket to bring the Cougars to within eight of the Lobos. That would be as close as BYU would get as New Mexico's Granger caught fire, scoring 23 points.
The Cougars' effort never slacked throughout the contest. With 12 minutes remaining in the game, BYU would make one final run to bring its deficit to within 11 points. New Mexico put a halt to BYU's run and ended its shooting drought, going on a 6-0 run of its own to take away any hopes for the Cougars advancing to the next round of the MWC Tournament.
In addition to Jensen's team-high 19 points, senior Mike Hall scored 13 in the final game of his BYU career, and Derek Dawes added 10. Dawes and Jensen also led the Cougar rebounding effort with six boards each. Jensen finished his four-year BYU career tied for second all-time in career field goal percentage with a 56.7 percent shooting mark. The Cougars finished the game shooting 39 percent to the Lobos 47 percent shooting from the field.
As the No. 7 seed, BYU's loss to No. 2-seed New Mexico gives the Cougars a 9-21 overall record to finish the 2004-2005 season.
Official Basketball Box Score -- GAME TOTALS -- FINAL STATISTICS
Brigham Young University vs University of New Mexico
03-10-05 7:00pm at Denver, Colorado (Pepsi Center)
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VISITORS: Brigham Young University 9-21
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
01 HALL, Mike.......... f 5-14 1-6 2-2 2 1 3 3 13 2 1 0 2 36
52 JENSEN, Jared....... c 7-13 0-0 5-7 3 3 6 2 19 1 4 0 1 30
12 REICHNER, Brock..... g 2-6 1-2 1-2 2 3 5 4 6 2 1 0 0 31
13 AINGE, Austin....... g 2-6 1-4 0-0 0 5 5 1 5 7 1 0 1 28
23 BALDERSON, Jimmy.... g 2-6 1-3 0-0 0 3 3 1 5 0 1 2 0 22
02 ROSE, Mike.......... 2-3 1-1 0-0 2 1 3 2 5 0 3 0 0 10
10 NASHIF, Terry....... 1-5 1-4 0-0 0 1 1 1 3 0 0 1 0 12
20 BURGESS, Sam........ 0-3 0-2 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 10
41 MEADS, Garner....... 1-3 0-0 3-3 2 2 4 2 5 0 0 0 0 6
43 DAWES, Derek........ 1-4 0-0 8-10 5 1 6 3 10 0 1 1 1 12
54 MILES, Chris........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 3
TEAM................ 3 2 5
Totals.............. 23-63 6-22 19-24 19 23 42 20 71 13 14 4 5 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-28 39.3% 2nd Half: 12-35 34.3% Game: 36.5% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-12 33.3% 2nd Half: 2-10 20.0% Game: 27.3% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 2-2 100 % 2nd Half: 17-22 77.3% Game: 79.2% 1
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HOME TEAM: University of New Mexico 24-6
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
13 CHIOTTI, David...... f 4-9 0-0 4-4 0 2 2 5 12 1 3 0 0 21
21 NEALE, Alfred....... f 5-7 4-5 1-2 2 5 7 3 15 1 0 0 1 28
33 GRANGER, Danny...... f 7-13 1-3 8-9 3 5 8 2 23 5 2 4 3 29
02 DEVRIES, Troy....... g 1-5 1-3 0-3 0 1 1 0 3 3 3 0 2 33
05 WALTERS, Mark....... g 4-8 2-4 2-2 0 4 4 1 12 12 1 0 1 31
00 OSBY, Bambale....... 2-2 0-0 1-2 0 1 1 0 5 2 0 1 0 7
01 WALTER, Kellen...... 2-3 2-3 0-0 0 0 0 0 6 0 2 0 1 6
20 WALL, Ryan.......... 0-2 0-0 2-2 0 2 2 4 2 2 1 0 1 18
22 HART, Jeff.......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4
24 PRENTICE, Darren.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
25 HARDEN, Blake....... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
32 DANRIDGE, Tony...... 3-3 0-0 1-4 0 2 2 4 7 0 0 0 1 16
35 PHALER, Sean........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 3
TEAM................ 2 1 3
Totals.............. 28-53 10-18 19-28 7 25 32 20 85 26 12 5 10 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-30 46.7% 2nd Half: 14-23 60.9% Game: 52.8% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-8 50.0% 2nd Half: 6-10 60.0% Game: 55.6% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 7-9 77.8% 2nd Half: 12-19 63.2% Game: 67.9% 4
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Officials: Scott Thornley, Eric Curry, Mike Giarrantano
Technical fouls: Brigham Young University-None. University of New
Mexico-None.
Attendance: 8249
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Brigham Young University...... 28 43 - 71
University of New Mexico...... 39 46 - 85
Points in the paint-BY 26,NM 30. Points off turnovers-BY 10,NM 14.
2nd chance points-BY 12,NM 5. Fast break points-BY 0,NM 6.
Bench points-BY 23,NM 20. Score tied-4 times. Lead changes-6 times.