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TEAMS: New Mexico vs. San Diego StateDATES: March 12, 2003TIMES: 7:00 p.m. MSTTHE SERIES: SDSU–26th meeting–SDSU leads series 13-12THE COACHES: UNM – Don Flanagan(8th season – 163-80)San Diego State – Jim Tomey(1st season – 9-17)THE RECORDS:UNM 19-8 (9-5), SDSU 9-17 (3-11)LAST GAME: UNM 63, BYU 44Colorado State 81, San Diego State 49TV/RADIO: 610 AM, “The Sports Animal”
TOURNAMENT TIME: The New Mexico Lobos begin action in the Mountain West Conference tournament Wednesday evening when they face the San Diego State Aztecs in the quarterfinals. Tipoff is 7:00 pm Mountain Time from the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. The game will be broadcast live on 610 AM The Sports Animal and over the internet at www.610thesportsanimal.com. The games will also be shown live on Comcast, channel 72. The championship game will be broadcast on a tape delay basis on ESPN 2. UNM is the No. 2 seed, San Diego State No. 7. The winner will play the victor of Colorado State and Wyoming, Friday at 3:30 pm (MST). The Lobos are coming off a two-game sweep of Utah and BYU. and enters the tournament with a record of 19-8. San Diego State comes into the first round on a three-game losing skid and a 9-17 record.
UNM’S CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT HISTORY: New Mexico is playing in its 12th postseason conference tournament. The Lobos have a 10-10 record, after losing in the first round four straight years between 1991-94. New Mexico has advanced to at least the semifinals in six of the past seven seasons and has made it to the title game on two occasions, losing to Colorado State in The Pit in 1996 and defeating Rice for the WAC title in 1998 in Las Vegas. UNM is 7-4 in tournament action in the Thomas and Mack Center, including the 1998 WAC title when the Lobos ran the table with four straight wins.
UNM vs. SAN DIEGO STATE: The Lobos trail the series 13-12, however they have won 10 of the last 11 meetings after the Aztecs won the first 10 games of the series. The two schools have met five times in league tournaments with SDSU leading 3-2 in those contests. The Lobos eliminated the Aztecs in the quarterfinals of last year’s tournament, 65-52 and in the 2001 tournament. SDSU won in 1994, 1995 and 1997.
NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET: The No. 1 an d No. 2 seeds have met only once in the conference championship finals (2000).
HOME SWEET HOME: The year marked the first time three teams posted perfect home records in conference play. Utah, UNM and Colorado State can all say they were perfect. In the first three years in the MWC, only two teams have gone through the conference season unbeaten at home – Utah in 2000-01 and CSU in 2001-02.
CAREER NIGHT: Against Utah, Tiffany Scaglione scored a career-high 13 points in a career-high 18 minutes. She also went a career-best 3-6 from the three-point line. Jordan Adams also had a career-night against San Diego State. Adams racked up 18 points and grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds for her second double-double of the season and the 10th of her career.
AWESOME ADAMS: Jordan Adams scored 25 points against BYU to lead all scorers and put herself higher on UNM’s career scoring list. Adams needed only 13 points to move into second place in all-time scoring at UNM going into the BYU game. She now has 1,684 career points.
MORE AWESOME ADAMS: In two games last week, Jordan Adams was 8-9 from the free throw line and she is now shooting 75% for the year. In the last 45 seconds of the Utah game, she went 4-for-4 puttting the Lobos up by five and ensuring the victory.
REJECTION: The Lobos have 110 blocks on the season. Every player on the team can say they have at least one rejection. Jordan Adams leads the Lobos with 62 blocks. The senior had her streak of at least one block broken against Colorado State. Adams had a season-high six rejections against Louisiana Tech on Dec. 21 and has had five or more blocks in five games this year.
FROM THE FIELD: UNLV recorded a field goal percentage of 46%, marking only the seventh time this season a team has shot over 40% against UNM. No team has shot higher than Colorado State’s 48% on Jan. 23.
CLEANING THE GLASS: The Lobos have proved its dominance on the boards this season. UNM has grabbed 143 more rebounds then its opponents, averaging 41.1 to 34.5 for a margin of +6.6. Against Memphis the Lobos grabbed a season-high 57 rebounds.
DOUBLING UP: Jordan Adams has had two double-doubles this year while Chelsea Grear has notched three. Adam’s latest double digit effort was against San Diego State when she had 18 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Grear last had a double-double against Wyoming with 11 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Mandi Moore joined the club with 16 points and 12 assists against Air Force.
VIEW FROM THE BENCH: The Lobo bench is currently averaging 19.9 ppg and 11.9 rpg. Melissa Forest leads the UNM bench players with 197 points (7.3 ppg) and 112 rebounds (4.1 rpg).FAN SUPPORT: The Lobos posted their highest attendance of the year against UNLV with a sellout crowd of 18,018. It was the fourth sellout in the history of UNM women’s basketball. UNM is 4th nationally, averaging 11,092, fans their highest average in school history. Against BYU the Lobos had 17,578 in attendance, marking the seventh time this season more than 10,000 fans have come to The Pit.
A MILE HIGH AND LOUDER THAN…: The Lobos are in their 12th season playing in one of the greatest home arenas in all of college basketball. UNM has an overall record of 125-62 (.668) in The Pit and is 54-31 in conference games (.635). Since Don Flanagan arrived on campus The Pit has welcomed the women’s basketball team with open arms. Since 1995, the Lobos are 111-24 (.822) overall and 48-9 (.842) in conference games.
SOPHOMORE SENSATION: Mandi Moore is making a name for herself in the MWC record books. She set the MWC sophomore record for assists in a game with 12 against Air Force and she continues to build on her record-setting freshman performance. Moore had a freshman record 146 assists last year and has 180 this season. Moore is currently fifth all-time at UNM with 326 assists and is second in season assist records.
PLAY-MAKER, PLAY-MAKER: Against BYU, Mandi Moore was perfect. She had 10 assists and zero turnovers. That marks the third time this season Moore has not recorded a turnover in a game. Moore has had seven games where she’s had nine or more assists.
SCORING FRENZY: The Lobos are 18-7 when they have two or more players score in double figures. UNM is a perfect 9-0 when four or more players have double digits. Jordan Adams leads the team with 22 double-figure games.
THREE-POINT THREAT: The Lobos had their streak of at least one three-pointer a game broken against UNLV when they went 0-16. Cristal Garcia leads the team with 35 (.372) three-point buckets and the team is shooting .344 from behind the arc. UNM is holding its opponents to only 29% from the three-point line.
A 50-50 PROPOSITION: The Lobos have not had an opponent shoot over 50% this year. The highest field goal percentage an opponent has shot this year is 48% by CSU on Jan. 23. The Lobos have shot over 50% four times this year and have posted 40% or better in 19 games. They are 16-3 in those games.
MORE 50-50: The Lobos have held their opponents to less than 50% from field goal range in 80 straight games. The last opponent to shoot 50% or better against UNM was Oregon State in 2000-01 and the last conference foe to shoot over 50% was Colorado State in 1999-2000.
WINNING MARGIN: The Lobos have had nine games where the margin of victory was 20 points or more and six games where it was 30 points or more. The average winning margin is 11.8 points.
SEASON STATS: The Lobos are currently ranked high in several team season records. New Mexico has scored 1,821 points this year, good enough for 13th place. With UNM’s 33.9 three-point field goal percentage the Lobos have the best percentage for a season. The Lobos are tied for fourth with 42.6 from field goal range. They are second in free throw percentage at 72.9. The 110 team blocks are fourth and the 464 assists are 6th.
START ME UP: Mandi Moore is the only player on this year’s squad to have started every game of her career (58).
GETTING DEFENSIVE: The Lobos have ranked in the top-25 final NCAA statistics for defense every year since Coach Flanagan came on board. Last season the Lobos were ranked in field goal percentage defense and scoring defense. This season the Lobos have held their opponents to 35% shooting and only 55.6 points a game.
D-FENCE: UNM has outrebounded its opponents defensively in 17 games this year. Currently UNM has 759 defensive boards to its opponents 616. The Lobos are 17-3 when they grab more defensive boards than their opponents.
SEASON ACCOLADES: Jordan Adams has been named the Mountain West Conference Player of the Week three times this year. Cristal Garcia earned the award for the week of Feb. 24th.
FIVE FOR THE DRIVE: The Lobos are going for their fifth 20-win season this year. UNM has had all four of its 20-win seasons under head coach Don Flanagan with its best ever record of 26-7 coming in his third year, 1997-98.
LEADERS OF THE PACK: In MWC games the Lobos led the conference in blocked shots (4.4 bpg), free throw percentage (.786), field goal percentage defense (.353), rebounding margin (+4.5) and defensive rebounds (26.6). Jordan Adams led the league in blocked shots with 33.
MINUTE MANIPULATOR: Mandi Moore led the team in minutes last season, averaging 35.2. This season Moore has played the most minutes on the team at 964 (35.7 mpg). She is the only player this year to play an entire game and has done it six times.
SIZE MATTERS: The Lobos have seven players on their roster that are 6’0 or taller. The starting five last season averaged 5’10.6. The three incoming freshman average 6’0.3. Jordan Adams and Jana Francis are the two tallest players on the roster at 6’3.
NOT BAD, FOR STARTERS: New Mexico returns four starters from the 2001-02 season (Mandi Moore, All-America candidate Jordan Adams, Lindsey Arndt and Chelsea Grear).
AN MVP PERFORMANCE: Jordan Adams was given MVP honors for the Southwest Airlines Lobo Shootout. Chelsea Grear and Abbie Letz were both named to the All-Tournament Team. In UNM’s other home tournament, the Holiday Inn Mountain View Invitational, Melissa Forest was given MVP honors with Jordan Adams and Cristal Garcia chosen for the All-Tournament team.
WE LIKE THE COLOR RED: The Lobos have two players redshirting this year. Jenny Shetters, a 6’4 transfer from Cal State Northridge, will have two years of eligibility while 6’1 Fort Lewis College transfer Judy Vogt will give the Lobos three years.
2001-02 RECAP: The Lobos ended the 2001-02 season with a record of 22-9, 10-4 in the Mountain West Conference. The Lobos were eliminated in the second round of the MWC Tournament, 71-58 by BYU and in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, 58-44 by Notre Dame.