Buck, Beynon & Nunn Honored on All-MW Teams
2018 Mountain West Tournament Notes
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Tesha Buck was named the Mountain West Newcomer of the Year, Cherise Beynon earned a third straight All-Mountain West nod and second straight All-MW Defensive Team nod, and Jaisa Nunn picked up her first career postseason honor as Mountain West officials announced the 2017-18 All-Conference teams.
Buck is third on the squad in scoring, averaging 14.4 points per game. She has scored 447 points on the season (giving her 1,450 in her collegiate career), and she broke the UNM record for three-pointers in a season with 89 triples, including a UNM and Mountain West record 10 against Lamar on December 20. She owns a 40-point game, which she accomplished against Lamar, that at one time was the UNM single-game scoring record. She also netted 30 in the regular season finale against Fresno State.
Buck overall is the team leader in minutes played with 1,036, and she is shooting .384 from three, 821 from the line and she is also averaging 4.7 rebounds per game and she has handed out 99 assists.
Buck’s honor marked the second straight season that a Lobo was named the Mountain West’s top newcomer, joining Richelle van der Keijl. Overall, she is the fifth Lobo to earn Newcomer of the Year honors, joining Jordan Adams (1999-00), Mandi Moore (2001-02) and Dionne Marsh (2004-05).
That 40-point night by Buck was only a school record for a few weeks, because Cherise Beynon topped that with 41 against San Diego State. That game helped push her to a third consecutive All-Mountain West selection, becoming the first Lobo to accomplish that since Amy Beggin from 2008-10. Beynon leads the team with 510 points, the fifth-most points in a single season in UNM history, and she is second on the team in scoring average with a 16.5 average, good for third in the Mountain West. She also leads the Mountain West with 6.9 assists per game, and her 215 is a Lobo single-season record.
Beynon, who ranks in the top five in career points, career rebounds, career assists, career field goals, career three-pointers and career minutes, was also named to the Mountain West’s All-Defensive Team for a second straight season. Beynon is averaging 5.5 rebounds per game and has a team-leading 69 steals on the season, good for second in the league. She has even added nine blocks.
Also earning All-Mountain West honors was Jaisa Nunn, who picked up her first career postseason honor. Nunn is second in the lead in scoring at 16.6 points per game, and her 10.2 rebounds per game leads the Mountain West as she is the only player in the league that is averaging a double-double. Over the 31-game season (one of which she missed), Nunn has recorded 17 double-doubles. She also scored 39 points, including a winning three-point play with just 2.1 seconds left in a 1-point win over No. 24 Marquette. Those 39 points were a Lobo single-game record until Buck scored 40 a month later.
Nunn’s .622 field goal percentage should easily break the UNM single-season record, and it leads the Mountain West as well. Nunn has 498 points on the season and needs just one basket to become the 10th player to break the 500-point mark in a single season.
All three players are in action tonight as the sixth-seeded Lobos open Mountain West Tournament play at 8 p.m. Mountain Time against the San José State Spartans, who are the No. 11 seed. The game can be watched on the Mountain West Network and Watch Stadium. Josh Suchon will bring the audio of the game on the Lobo Sports Network, flagshipped on 610 AM/94.5 FM in Albuquerque, with a concurrent stream available on golobos.com/watch.