RENO, NEV. — After a dominating performance that resulted in a 27-11 first-quarter lead, The University of New Mexico women’s basketball team (8-6, 4-0 MW) won an eventual nail-biter over the Nevada Wolf Pack (6-9, 0-4 MW) on Saturday evening by a score of 69-63 to claim its first 4-0 conference start since the 1998-99 season when the Lobos were a member of the WAC. The win marks the first time in the 17 seasons that the Lobos have been a part of the Mountain West that they have started 4-0.
Freshman Mykiel Burleson got the Lobos out to a strong start scoring an outstanding 16 points in just the first quarter. Prior to Saturday’s game, Burleson had only scored over 16 points in a game once when she netted 22 at Texas Tech on Nov. 20.
“I think that this was one of those games we just had to gut out,” head coach Mike Bradbury said. “Nevada was tremendous in taking us out of everything that we wanted to do. We had no inside game today and we had to gut it out. We were good defensively in the second half and Cherise was Cherise. We’re fortunate to have her and fortunate that she played as well as she did today.”
The New Mexico bench was limited on Saturday as UNM was missing junior guard Alex Lapeyrolerie and sophomore guard Emily Lines, both exceptional perimeter shooters. The remaining Lobos stood up to the challenge and were led by junior Cherise Beynon with her seventh game of the season scoring 20 or more points, her fourth straight. Beynon scored 25 points to go along with five rebounds, three assists and two steals while going 6-of-10 from behind the 3-point line. Six 3-pointers in a single game ties Beynon’s career high which she last achieved on Feb. 10, 2016 vs. Utah State.
Beynon was followed by Burleson who finished with 18 points, her second-highest total of her career, to go along with seven rebounds and a steal. She went 7-of-17 from the floor and 3-of-7 from 3-point range. Powering through her own adverse conditions, junior Jayda Bovero was a last-minute decision to play and notched her third game in double digits this season scoring 10 points to help lead the squad.
Burleson got the Lobos started with a three less than 15 seconds into the game, followed by two more as she went 3-of-4 from behind the arc and 6-of-7 from the floor in the first quarter. The freshman couldn’t miss and was joined in the 3-pointer party by Beynon who went 3-of-3 from deep to account for a combined 25 of UNM’s 27 opening points.
“I thought Mykiel was really good defensively tonight,” Bradbury said. “She made some shots in the first quarter but defensively, this was her best game. She did not miss a defensive assignment.”
With a lofty 16-point lead after the first frame, the Lobos looked to lose the momentum as they gave up three turnovers in a span of 1:14 to open the second quarter and allowed a three by the Wolf Pack’s Desirae Gonzalez to make it 27-14 UNM. The Lobo offense seemed to stall out as Nevada whittled the 16-point lead down to 10 and eventually to eight as Nevada closed the half on a 6-0 run over the final 1:51 to make it 40-32 UNM. Nevada outscored UNM 21-13 in the second quarter and outshot the Lobos 45 percent to 25.
As if the reduced bench wasn’t enough pressure on the Lobos, Beynon picked up her third foul on a questionable call that laid the junior out at half court with just 24 seconds left in the first half to put her starting the second half in foul trouble.
UNM was outshooting Nevada 40.0 to 32.4 percent and outrebounding 27-19 at the half. Nevada improved from behind the arc, going 0-for-5 in the first quarter to 3-of-6 in the second. Conversely, the Lobos went from 6-of-9 (66.7 percent) in the first to 2-of-6 (33.3 percent) in the second.
Beynon came out with back-to-back 3-pointers to open scoring in the third quarter and put UNM back up by a comfortable 14-point margin, 46-32 but in similar fashion to the second quarter, scoring droughts for UNM allowed Nevada to cut the Lobo lead back to single digits when the Wolf Pack closed the quarter on a 4-0 run to make it 55-46.
The Lobos were once again daunted by foul trouble when senior standout Richelle van der Keijl collected three straight fouls in the third quarter, bringing her game total to four. van der Keijl, who averages 14.3 points per game, fouled out with 1:45 left in the fourth quarter after scoring just six. The finale of the game was a close one as UNM got its lead out to as many as nine, 64-55, before Nevada cut it to just three, 66-63 with exactly one minute to go. A free throw by sophomore Jaisa Nunn made it a four-point two-possession game, 67-63, with 52 seconds left followed by another free throw by senior Kianna Keller at 30 seconds (68-63) and yet another by Beynon with just 18 left on the clock for the 69-63 final.
Overall the Lobos outshot Nevada 35.4 percent to 32.9 and posted 14 fast-break points to just eight for the Wolf Pack. Nevada did however outscore the Lobos in the paint (30-26) and off of turnovers (13-11). The Lobos grabbed 52 boards to just 37 for the Wolf Pack, led by Keller and Nunn (12 apiece) to make UNM 8-1 this season when outrebounding its opponent.
The Lobos return to action at UNLV on Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 7 p.m. MT and UNM returns to WisePies Arena – The Pit on Saturday, Jan. 14 as they host Colorado State in a 3 p.m. contest. The Colorado State game marks Pack the Pit night with just $2 tickets!