FORT COLLINS, COLO. — The University of New Mexico women’s basketball team lost a nail biter in the final seconds at Colorado State by a final score of 58-55 on Wednesday night at Moby Arena. With the win, CSU clinched at least a share of the 2016-17 Mountain West regular-season title for the fourth consecutive season.
The Lobos were led by junior Alex Lapeyrolerie who scored 16 points while junior Cherise Beynon collected a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Beynon was just three assists short of her third triple-double in the last 14 days. Classmate Laneah Bryan added 12 points going near perfect from 3-point range, hitting a career-high four from behind the arc (4-5).
“I give our kids a lot of credit. They fought, scrapped and played tonight, but we just couldn’t make enough shots,” head coach Mike Bradbury said. “When you’re playing against someone as talented as her (Ellen Nystrom), you’ve got to be able to shoot it better than 30 percent and we just couldn’t tonight. But I couldn’t be more proud, these are the best two defensive teams in the league and we both guarded each other tonight.”
It was Bryan who hit a 3-pointer with 37 seconds left on the game clock to bring the Lobos within one, 56-55 CSU after UNM had been down by 10 at the half. The Rams dribbled down court and ran out the clock, just a little over a five-second differential between the shot clock and the game clock. Nystrom, Colorado State’s leading scorer and 2015-16 Mountain West Player of the Year, scored a layup as the shot clock wound down with just over five seconds left in the game to put the Lobos down by three.
The Lobos called a timeout to draft a 3-point play to Lapeyrolerie, but the perfect execution effort was thwarted when the Rams blocked the shot with two seconds left. UNM attempted another but the clock expired before the shot got off for the 58-55 final.
It was a close game from the beginning with both teams’ defenses stepping to the plate. Beynon scored half of the Lobos’ first-half points as UNM was behind seven at the quarter break, 19-12. The defenses prevailed even more in the second quarter as both teams were held to just single digits, UNM posting five points while CSU scored eight for a 27-17 half-time score.
After shooting just 20.7 percent to 35.7 percent for CSU in the first half, New Mexico hit its stride in the second. The Lobos went 8-for-19 in the third quarter (42.1 percent) to outscore the Rams 21-14 in the frame and cut the deficit to three, 41-38, closing the frame on a 6-0 run. The run was capped by a buzzer-beating three from Beynon which came from an inbound pass from freshman Hannah Sjerven under the opposite basket with just over three seconds left to ignite the Lobos.
Lapeyrolerie kept the run going, coming out of the quarter break with another 3-pointer to tie the game 41-41 at the 9:37 mark. The Lobos fought but did not gain the lead until Bryan hit a huge three with 2:37 left to make it 52-51 in favor of the visitors. It was the last lead the Lobos would hold as CSU answered with a matching three 22 seconds later en route to the Ram victory.
The Lobos shot 30.2 percent (19-63) on the night compared to 39.3 percent (22-56) for the Rams despite outrebounding Colorado State 45-35. The loss marks just the third this season that the Lobos have suffered when claiming the most boards.
UNM took advantage of its trips to the charity stripe, hitting 8-of-10 for 80.0 percent compared to 6-of-8 (75.0 percent) for Colorado State.
The Rams were led by Nystrom, who scored 22 points, collected 10 rebounds and dished six assists while posting four blocks and three steals. She was followed by Elin Gustavsson who also notched a double-double, scoring 11 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.
The Lobos return to action on Saturday, Feb. 25 as they host their last home game of the season at WisePies Arena – The Pit at 1 p.m. UNM will be honoring its seniors following the game.