"That last Washington drive took it all out of us," said Jorgensen. "We gave everything we had and it was a little shock and exhaustion at the end before it all came together on that play. We had enough to make one more play."

The bottom line to this nonconference road win streak (0-9 before Saturday), said Jorgensen, is that he and his teammates don't have to hear people clamoring about it.

"We all got sick of hearing about it."

Then, the big captain from Helper put Saturday's win in perspective.

"I think it's big momentum-wise," he said. "It's good to be battle-tested early. When we come in a hostile environment, a hostile crowd and hostile referees, to come out and win a close game like that is huge. What it does, is next time we find ourselves in a close game and are challenged, we know we can make the plays to win, whether it's UCLA, Utah or New Mexico.

"This is one more step. We've only taken two steps up. There's a lot more steps on the ladder to go."

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E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com