LARAMIE, WYO. — After a hard-fought, back-and-forth battle, The University of New Mexico women’s basketball team fell to the undefeated Wyoming Cowgirls by a score of 68-52 on the road on Saturday. The game was a nail biter throughout the first 30 minutes as neither team was able to gain more than a six-point lead until the Cowgirls went on a 14-0 run over 3:53 in the fourth quarter to run away with the game.
Wyoming improves to 7-0 in the conference (15-3 overall) with the victory while the Lobos are now 5-3 in the Mountain West (9-9 overall).
“(Wyoming is) really good, it’s what they do. They make every open shot and that’s what makes them good,” head coach Mike Bradbury said. “This game comes down to making shots. I thought we got better shots than they did, so that’s to attribute to our kids executing and doing the right things correctly offensively, but once you execute correctly you have to put it in the basket. We just didn’t do that tonight. I think our kids played well, we got good shots, but we have to be a little more consistent to where we can make more of them.”
Junior Cherise Beynon led the Lobos with 20 points on the day and now needs just 21 more to hit 1,000 career points. Also scoring in double figures was senior Richelle van der Keijl who notched 14 followed by redshirt-junior Alex Lapeyrolerie who posted nine. Despite scoring just two points, sophomore Jaisa Nunn performed well under the basket grabbing a team-high seven rebounds including three offensive boards.
Leading the Cowgirls was junior Natalie Baker who scored 18 points while junior Liv Roberts registered her sixth double-double of the season with 14 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Hailey Ligocki was the third Cowgirl to reach double digits, adding another 14 to Wyoming’s total.
The Lobo momentum started strong as Beynon opened scoring with a three and New Mexico proceeded to go on a 6-0 run in just under three minutes, taking a 5-point, 13-8 lead over the Cowgirls with 2:05 left in the first period. Wyoming took the UNM lead down to two with 34 seconds left but a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from junior Laneah Bryan made it 18-13 Lobos.
The teams went back-and-forth throughout the rest of the half that included another 6-0 Lobo run and an outstanding Lapeyrolerie steal and fast-break jumper combo to put UNM back ahead. At the end of the half, Beynon hit a one-footed jumper at a hard angle with three seconds left to make it 33-30 Lobos at the half.
Beynon went scoreless in the third quarter, in fact, both teams struggled as a whole from the floor as UNM shot just 18.2 percent in the quarter and Wyoming was at 27.3 percent. Neither team scored in the first two and a half minutes and both went on yet another drought from the 7:18 mark to 4:48 left in the third. UNM was outscored just 14-6 and the teams closed the quarter with the Cowgirls leading 44-39.
The Lobo deficit grew in the fourth as Wyoming’s offense picked up momentum. With 6:41 left in the game, Beynon hit another shot from behind the arc to make it a two-point game, 50-48 Wyoming. From there, the Cowgirls responded with a 14-0 run to take a 16-point lead with 2:48 left on the clock that ultimately led to the 68-52 defeat.
Overall, the Lobos shot 35.6 percent from the floor while Wyoming shot 44.4 percent. The Lobos were also outrebounded 40-31 in a rare occurence. UNM is now 0-7 when being outrebounded on the season (0-2 MW) and remains 9-2 when securing the most boards. Wyoming dominated in second-chance points (13-7) and bench points (20-4). The game also marks just the fifth time this season that a Lobo opponent has scored more free throws as UNM accumulated 13 player fouls to just 10 for Wyoming.
UNM returns to action on Wednesday, Jan. 25 as it travels to Utah State for a 7 p.m. contest. When the Lobos hosted Utah State earlier this season, UNM pulled out a 78-67 victory at WisePies Arena – The Pit. UNM’s next home game is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 28.