UNM basketball teams give fans something to howl about
By Riley Bauling – Daily Lobo
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (U-WIRE) — Howls and booms could be heard from within the confines of the Pit on Saturday.
The howls hyped up the UNM men’s and women’s basketball teams and the booms showed 6-foot-7 freshman men’s basketball player Bambale “Boom” Osby just how much UNM fans appreciate seeing him in a Lobo uniform.
About 4,000 people were in attendance at the Lobo Howl, which is held every year the evening before the first official day of practice for both teams. Fans were treated to intrasquad scrimmages, a 3-point contest and the highlight of the night for most, a slam-dunk competition.
The dunk fest, judged by the fans, featured three of the Lobos’ incoming freshmen. Tony Danridge, Darren Prentice and Osby participated in the competition that was eventually judged a tie between Danridge and Prentice.
Osby came in to the dunk competition highly touted after men’s head coach Ritchie McKay told the crowd, “He is going to be one of your favorite players on the team this season.”
Osby failed to impress though, as the three attempts he made to go through his legs and then dunk all ended up with the ball bouncing haphazardly in different directions.
“That was experimental,” Osby said. “That experiment is going to be shelved permanently.”
Prentice, a 6-1 guard from Alamogordo, had arguably the most exciting dunk of the night when right after Osby’s botched second attempt, he went baseline, put the ball through his legs, and slammed it home to a thunderous roar from the Lobo faithful. After the dunk, he flashed an ear-to-ear smile in Osby’s direction.
Senior Danny Granger, a preseason All-American candidate, didn’t participate in the dunk contest, much to the displeasure of the fans.
“We let the freshmen do it,” Granger said. “Me, Al (Neale) and Mark (Walters) told the freshmen we were getting too old for this stuff.”
Senior Lindsey Arndt and sophomore Katie Montgomery squared off in the finals of the 3-point contest against juniors Jana Francis and Judy Vogt. After Montgomery hit six straight, Arndt failed to keep the pace, letting Francis and Vogt come back and beat them by a hair.
Francis and Vogt high-fived in celebration as Francis’ last shot fell through seconds before Arndt’s final one did.
The men’s intrasquad scrimmage saw a fast-paced offensive showdown before the Cherry team finally took down the Silver, 38-33. Granger had a game-high 14 points for the Cherry, outpacing sophomore walk-on Kellen Walter, who nailed four straight 3-pointers to score 12 points for the Silver team.
“This team can score,” Granger said. “We got 6-10 guys shooting 3’s. I am a lot more excited this year than I was last year.”
The Cherry team for the women’s intrasquad scrimmage was also victorious, coming out on top, 22-19.
Senior Mandi Moore led both teams in scoring with 13 points, going a blistering 5-of-7 on 3-pointers and 6-of-9 from the floor overall before taking an elbow in the nose that sent her to the sidelines cupping her bloodied face.
Even with the smashed nose, Moore was still upbeat about what is in store for Lobo basketball fans.
“We’re more athletic this year,” she said. “This being my senior year, I want to go out and have a good year. We have a lot of talent, and we will be able to go far with it.”
© 2004 Daily Lobo via U-WIRE.
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