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Albuquerque, N.M. – The University of New Mexico womens basketball team was hoping for an exciting kickoff to their 2001-02 Mountain West Conference schedule in front of a near-capacity crowd at The Pit on Sunday. Instead, they were met by a tough UNLV defense and a Rebel scoring tandem that the Lobos couldnt keep up with, resulting in a 62-53 UNLV win.
Rebel senior Linda Frohlich and junior Constance Jinks scored 20 and 25 points respectively, accounting for over 70% of UNLVs scoring. The Lobos were not able to match the scoring output of the Rebels as UNM suffered their worst shooting percentage of the season. The Lobos connected on just 22 of 67 shots for a 32.8 percentage. New Mexico tried to comeback using the three point shot by attempting 29 treys in the game, which is just two shy of a school record. However, UNM was only able to connect on four of their attempts from behind the arc.
Despite not shooting well, the Lobos did play some tough defense of their own. New Mexico forced UNLV into 18 turnovers and 39.6% shooting from the floor. UNM tried to mount a comeback in the closing minutes of the game when they forced UNLV into a shot-clock violation with 5:05 left to play and trailing 45-54. On the next UNM possession, sophomore Lauren McLeod used her shooters touch on a pull-up jumper to close the gap to 47-54 and ignite The Pit crowd of 17,215. After a steal by freshman Mandi Moore, McLeod found junior Jordan Adams for an inside basket, cutting the lead to five with 2:54 left in the game. That would be as close as the Lobos could get as UNLV outscored UNM 8-4 in the final two minutes of play to hold on for the win.
Adams led UNM with 15 points and 9 rebounds. Freshman Lindsay Arndt finished with 9 points to go along with 5 rebounds and junior Chelsea Greer added 7 points and 5 rebounds.
The Lobos next travel to Air Force for more MWC action on January 12. Tip-off is set for 2:00 PM.q