DAILY LOBO new mexico
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thursday March 6, 2014
UNM routs Air Force in final home game By J.R. Oppenheim
assistantsports@dailylobo.com @JROppenheim Chris Perez never saw much playing time for the New Mexico basketball team, primarily taking the court in the final moments of blowout victories. That changed Wednesday night. The senior walk-on guard earned his career start in his final night at The Pit alongside fellow seniors Kendall Williams and Cameron Bairstow, both regular starters. Perez only played one minute in the first half but gave an assist to a fellow senior, regular-starting guard Kendall Williams, for a 3-pointer. “I want to thank my teammates,” Perez told the crowd after the Lobos captured an 80-52 victory over Air Force. “They’ve been a lot more talented than me, but they still are really good friends. It’s been unbelievable to be friends with these guys.” The win preserved UNM’s share of the Mountain West standings lead. In Las Vegas, Nev., MW co-leader San Diego State surged past UNLV in the last five minutes for a 73-64 win and set up a Saturday showdown for the conference regular-season title. Air Force never really challenged the Lobos at any point in the game. At around the eightminute mark with the game well in hand, the Pit fans regaled the coach with a “We want Chris” chant, and resumed that chant at various times. He returned at the 4:34 mark and closed out the game. He scored his only field goal with 42.3 seconds left on the clock, working the ball in the post, pump-faked and hit a jumper. The crowd erupted with elation. Perez
Sergio Jiménez / @SXfoto/ Daily Lobo Senior Lobo guard Chris Perez is embraced by his teammates at the end of the game against Air Force at the Pit on Wednesday night. Perez began his career with the Lobos as a walkon and not only was announced as a starter for the game, but scored with 42 seconds to play. The game was the last home game for the senior players which included Perez, Cameron Bairstow and Kendall Williams. finished the game playing six min- Tyler Pientka and Connor O’Hea. “I told him, ‘Senior Night is He came into the postgame press utes, hitting 1 of 3 from the field. Williams posted in 13 points and coming up. You better get a dunk conference barefoot. Perez, Williams and Bairstow three assists in 29 minutes, and soon,’” Bairstow said. “I just put “Oh, I’ve got another pair of have 103 career wins with one reg- Bairstow recorded 21 points, one up and it actually went in. It shoes,” Williams said. “It just hit me ular-season game and a postsea- including his second career felt pretty good.” yesterday (Tuesday). I’ve had a laidson waiting, and Perez will end his 3-pointer. Each player addressed the back approach to things and didn’t time at UNM with the most wins Bairstow said he and fellow crowd after comments from Neal. really think of my speech too much. ever as a walk-on. Aussie Hugh Greenwood had a While Williams gave his speech, I just wanted to thank a lot of people The team recognized all three bet whether Bairstow could get he thanked the crowd by taking off because a lot of people helped me. senior players in a postgame cel- a 3-pointer before Greenwood his game shoes, signing them and The shoe thing just kind of came.” ebration, along with two trainers slammed a dunk. throwing them into the crowd. see Basketball PAGE 2
N. Valley clinic would serve more patients by Ardee Napolitano news@dailylobo.com @ArdeeTheJourno
After acquiring land late last year, UNM Hospital officials continue to advance plans for the North Fourth Street Clinic. UNMH CEO Steve McKernan said the hospital successfully acquired the property in December, and that at the moment, the hospital is working on a master plan for the facility. UNMH aims to present the plan to the UNM Board of Regents in April or May, McKernan said. The plan will then go to the New Mexico Board of Finance one month after, before construction can begin, he said. “It’s going to be a full-service, primary-care clinic,” he said. “The University of New Mexico has purchased the land, and we’re planning to build it hopefully within
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the next year with the permission of the state.” McKernan said construction would take about six months, and that it would take another two months before the facility could officially open. UNMH decided to establish the clinic to satisfy the needs of its Albuquerque patients, McKernan said. “We studied the demographics of our patients,” he said. “There’s a great demand for primary care, and this looked like a great location given the homes of our patients and what their needs were.” According to an article by the Albuquerque Journal, the hospital initially planned to begin working on the 17,000-square-foot clinic in 2011. The clinic will be located at the former site of Larry’s Drive-in, a North Fourth landmark south of Candelaria Road. The North Fourth Street Clinic
will be UNMH’s largest primarycare facility, according to the article. It will house 21 exam rooms, a radiology department and a blood work laboratory, and will employ a staff of about 25 to 30 people. McKernan said that although the hospital planned the project three years ago, it didn’t acquire the land until last year because officials wanted to hold forums for community members of the area about what they think about the project. He said UNMH wanted to coordinate community members’ expectations with those of the city government, who previously owned the site. “We had a commitment to go through all the community processes,” he said. “They had to match the neighborhood stuff… and to make sure it complied with the city’s plan.” McKernan said the project will cost the hospital about $5.5
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million. He said funds will come from UNMH’s budget. The new clinic will also serve as a training facility for students in medicine, nursing and pharmacy, McKernan said. Martha Archila, a UNM freshman, said she thinks that having more medical training facilities for UNM students would be important for those studying in medical fields. She said that although the facility would cost the University some money, it will bring in more benefits to community members. “Any health care is better than no health care, so more clinics, more people can get helped,” she said. “I don’t think you can put a price on health care. It would be better to use that $5.5 million for health care than for other stuff that is not necessary.” Archila, who has considered radiologic sciences as a potential
major, said she would be interested to do her training in the facility if possible in the future. Kylie Disch, a freshman studying biochemistry, said that because she plans to go to medical school, she might also consider training in the new clinic. She said that considering the benefits of the potential clinic, its financial cost is worth it. “It’s a little bit of money,” she said. “But it’s not that much compared to what we’re spending on tons of other things… I plan on going to med school, so I’m always happy for other opportunities for somewhere else to find someone to shadow.” McKernan said he feels thrilled about the project. “We’re very excited about being able to establish another primary-care clinic in our community,” he said.
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