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Albuquerque Juniors Jordan Adams and Chelsea Grear combined for 44 points to lead the University of New Mexico womens basketball team to a 71-61 victory over Loyola Marymount. A crowd of 7,883 was at The Pit as the Lobos won their sixth straight game to improve to 11-3 on the season. The Lions fell to 8-4.
UNM was playing its first game in 11 days, since winning the Southwest Airlines Shootout on Dec. 22. New Mexico has not lost since Dec. 6, when it dropped a 71-58 decision at Texas. The Lobos have also won five straight home games.
Adams scored a team-high 24 points, including nine points during an 18-0 run that covered the last three minutes of the first half and the opening minutes of the second period. Adams total equaled her season scoring high.
The first half was a seesaw affair that featured five ties and five lead changes. LMU used a 13-3 spurt to take a 22-18 lead with six minutes left before the break as UNM hit just one field goal in a little more than five minutes. Down 25-23, the Lobos decisive run was ignited by a Grear jumper and capped by a Lindsey Arndt basket that gave UNM a 41-25 advantage.
Grear, who scored 13 of her 20 points in the first period by making all six shots from the floor, also played suffocating defense on the Lions leading scorer, Bryn Britton. The 5-11 Britton was averaging 16 points a game, but finished with only eight, all in the second half. Five of those tallies came when Grear was out of the game. Grear made nine of 12 field goals on the evening and more than doubled her season scoring average of 9.5 points a game.
The Lions were able to cut the deficit below double digits only once in the second half. A short jumper trimmed the margin to 67-58 with 1:36 remaining.
Loyolas Kate Murray led all scorers with 25 points. No other Lobo finished in double figures, although Arndt had a solid floor game with eight points, a team-high seven rebounds, five assists, two steals, a block and no turnovers in 31 minutes.
New Mexico ends a six-game home stand Sunday afternoon when it opens Mountain West Conference play against the UNLV Rebels. A sellout crowd of 18,018 is expected for UNMs annual Pack The Pit promotion. Less than 1,200 tickets remain for the contest that will be televised nationally by ESPN2. Tipoff is 1:05 p.m. Mountain Time.Iq