The greatest game ever...

Currently on the UNM Lobos website you can post a story of the greatest moment you have witnessed in "The Pit". As a die hard Lobo fan my greatest moment was easy to think of. I submitted my story and here it is:

I'm only 24 years old, and a recent UNM graduate, but I've been a Lobo fan since I was old enough to go to the games with my dad. I bleed cherry and silver and live for the Lobo basketball season every year. I know there have been many great moments in "The Pit" that I haven't seen due to my age but this moment I will remember forever...
During the 1995-96 season the Lobos, after hovering right around the edge of the top 25 polls all year had put together a nine game win streak to end the season, including a triple overtime win against Fresno State in the semi-finals of the WAC tournament. On the night of March 9th, 1996 the despised Lobo rival Utah Ute’s, rolled into "The Pit" with a team that had been ranked in the top 10 all year and beaten the Lobos twice that season. The capacity crowd that filled the hallowed seats of the greatest college sporting venue in history was ready to jump all over the Ute’s. The crowd erupted with boo's and screams as the opposing team, referees and even the Utah cheerleaders came down the infamous ramp. I remember standing and cheering with my fellow Lobo fans throughout the warm-ups before the game even started. It was an atmosphere like I had never witnessed before.
Lobo fans are the greatest fans in the world and for that game my dad and I sat near the best collection of fans we could have ever hoped for. There were the guys behind us in their mid 20s, who probably had been out before the game. There was the guy in his 40s that had his head phones on and was dedicated to listening to every word the great Mike Roberts had to say…then relaying it to us (it was actually pretty cool, we got some good stats info). There was a family of four in front of us who were die hard Lobo fans. Then there were your usual “PIT” suspects; the face paint guy, the Lobo mask guy (and his Lobo masked girlfriend), the screamers, the boo birds, the doubters, but we were all fanatics and about to witness the greatest of all the Keith Van Horn vs. Kenny Thomas battles.
The game, as most great Utah, New Mexico games usually are went down to the wire. The stars for their respective teams took over and each team went to them every possession. Van Horn scores, Thomas scores, back and forth they went like a heavy weight title bout. With the Lobos up by 2 points and little time on the clock, Utah called a timeout. I don’t know how they got anything accomplished in that huddle considering I was in row 8 (that’s 8 from the top) and had to cover my ears (while screaming) it was so loud. We all knew what they were going to do, the Lobos knew what they were going to do, they were going to Van Horn…again. Then right before the ball came in play the twenty something’s behind us started yelling “I’m gonna hug Kenny, I’m gonna hug Kenny when we win!” Being sports superstitious I was pretty upset with them, but as it turned out that was only temporary. The crowd came to a deafening roar, the level of sound that shakes your stomach if you haven’t had enough to eat that day, or seems to vibrate so much through your veins that it feels as if the other 18,017 Lobo fans are making your heart pulsate in rhythm with one of the many Lobo chants. Utah throws the ball in and they find a way to get the ball to Van Horn at the top of the key…seconds seem like hours…a ball fake…crossover…he takes his defender to the rim. Unfortunately for Keith Van Horn, that defender was Roland Hannah a defensive specialist who offered smothering defense on the future NBA player. Hannah was in his face but stumbled at the top of the lane…keeping a hand in Van Horn’s face he was able to throw off his shot (he may have had a handful of jersey, but that’s neither here nor there). Kenny Thomas got the rebound and the victory was all but sealed with only a couple seconds left. Thomas hit his free throws…Utah threw a 94 foot prayer…and the Lobos has just beaten the 10th ranked team in the nation in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament Championship. The crowd seemed to jump in unison in jubilation. The students, and what seemed to be everyone in the pit (myself included) stormed the court, before it was the cliché it is now.
That night will forever live in my mind and my heart as the best moment I have ever witnessed in the world famous PIT. I tell people that don’t know about “The Pit”, of its greatness, and of the spine shuttering, bone chilling feeling I get every time I walk in the doors of that great arena. Although I tell people about “The Pit”, every chance I get, it takes a game like that or a lifetime of Lobo basketball fanaticism to truly know what “The Pit” is all about.
Oh yeah, that guy DID hug Kenny!