Bramlett's homecoming spoiled again

What happens when UA senior center A.J. Bramlett is forced to the bench with foul trouble?

What happened Saturday night at The Pit was a New Mexico comeback from a 15-point halftime deficit to eventually lead the Lobos to a thrilling 79-78 victory.

"It was tough to be on the bench that long," Bracelet said. "I just had to keep telling the guys to play hard whenever they came by."

Bramlett picked up his fourth foul early in the second half, just when he was starting to find a scoring groove.

"I felt good for the first 10 minutes in the second half," Bramlett said. "But what can you do?"

All told, the Albuquerque-native scored 12 points and pulled down six rebounds, but was limited to only 24 minutes because of his foul trouble.

"I'm not going to say anything about the officials," he said. "I was trying to make sure I didn't foul and then they called that fourth one on me."

With Bramlett on the bench and the Lobos' post players keying on freshman forward Michael Wright, UNM beat Arizona to the ball consistently as the Lobos went from 15 points down to having a 10 point lead with less than four minutes left in the game.

"We didn't do a very good job with their post people with A.J. out," UA head coach Lute Olson said.

It was Bramlett's third trip to The Pit in his college career, and his second loss to the Lobos, the only win coming in October at the Black Coaches Association Classic over Tennessee.

"I definitely wanted to win this one," he said. "We've gotten wins for everyone else in their hometowns. I wanted it to be my turn."

The Pit crowd, as it did in 1996 when the Lobos beat Arizona 84-77, taunted Bramlett for most of the night, with the chant of "traitor" being the most frequently used.

"Nah, it doesn't bother me at all," he said of the crowd. "They call you names anywhere you go, here they just do it a little more and they're a lot louder."

Bramlett said the game as a whole, though, was beneficial for the young Wildcats.

"I think we improved as a team," he said. "We played a good game, we just came out short in the end."

Olson said the combination of the sell-out crowd, which reached deafening levels during the Lobos' comeback run, and the questionable officiating, combined with Bramlett's absence to hurt UA.

"And you wonder why they can't get anyone to play here," Olson said with a sarcastic grin.