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Fort Collins, Colo. — No. 20 Colorado State overcame a 10-point first-half deficit to edge New Mexico 58-54, giving the Rams the Mountain West Conference regular-season title.
The Rams, 23-5 overall, finished 12-2 in the league and will be the No. 1 seed in next week’s MWC Tournament. CSU will play Air Force in the quarterfinals starting Wednesday at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
The Lobos fall to 21-7 in all games, and they finished 10-4 in conference play. UNM gets the No. 2 seed with Utah’s 69-65 victory over UNLV late this afternoon in Las Vegas. The Lobos will take on the Aztecs of San Diego State, the No. 6 seed, on Wednesday in the first round of the MWC tournament. New Mexico was predicted to place fifth in the MWC preseason poll.
Game times will be announced on Sunday. Visit www.themwc.com for pairings and game times.
New Mexico jumped out to a 16-7 lead on the hot shooting of freshman Lindsey Arndt, who scored 10 points early, including a pair of 3-pointers. Two free throws by Molly McKinnon gave UNM its biggest lead of the game at 21-11 with 5:13 left before halftime.
The Rams responded with an 8-1 run to trim the Lobo lead to 22-19. A 3-pointer by Jackie Campbell got Colorado State to within two (24-22) at halftime.
Katie Gorton capped a 16-3 CSU run by scoring the first five points of the second half. Her three-point play gave the Rams their first lead at 27-24. Colorado State got its biggest lead at 48-38 on two free throws by Lisa Narkiewicz with 7:07 left.
New Mexico proved resilient, though, battling back to narrow the gap to two points (56-54) when Arndt hit a baseline jumper with 1:40 remaining. Jasai Ferrucho made two free throws with 58 seconds left for the final margin.
The Lobos shot 37% for the afternoon, but went without a field goal for more than nine minutes in the middle of the game. Cristal Garcias 3-pointer at the 7:23 mark of the first half gave UNM a 19-11 lead, but UNM didnt get another basket until Chelsea Grears layin with 18:04 remaining in the game.
Junior Jordan Adams, the Lobos leading scorer at 14.7 a game, did not score until the 15:45 mark of the second half. She finished with a season-low three points on just three shots from the field. Its Adams lowest point total since she was held scoreless last year at Colorado State.
Arndt was the only Lobo in double figures with 12 points.
Colorado State missed its first eight shots from the floor, but was 22 of 45 thereafter, including 54% (13-24) accuracy in the secomd half.
The Lobos lost for only the third time in 23 games this season when outrebounding an opponent. UNM had a 36-30 edge on the boards.1