TEAMS: New Mexico vs. Colorado StateDATES: March 14, 2003TIMES: 3:30 p.m. MSTTHE SERIES: Colorado State–36th meeting–CSU leads series 19-26THE COACHES: UNM – Don Flanagan(8th season – 164-80)Colorado State – Chris Denker(1st season – 18-11)THE RECORDS:UNM 20-8 (9-5), CSU 18-11 (8-6)LAST GAME: UNM 54, San Diego State 49Colorado State 59, Wyoming 56TV/RADIO: 610 AM, “The Sports Animal”
TOURNAMENT TIME: The New Mexico Lobos begin second round action in the Mountain West Conference tournament Friday afternoon when they face the Colorado State Rams in the semifinals. Tipoff is 3:30 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 game 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, Colorado State No. 3. The winner will play the victor of Utah and BYU, Saturday at 4:30 pm (MST) in the MWC Championship game. The Lobos are coming off a hard-fought first round game against San Diego State. Colorado State enters today’s game with a 59-56 escape over Wyoming.
UNM’S CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT HISTORY: New Mexico is playing in its 12th postseason conference tournament. The Lobos have an 11-10 record, after losing in the first round four straight years between 1991-94. New Mexico has advanced to at least the semifinals in seven of the past eight 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 8-4 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. COLORADO STATE: The Lobos trail the series 19-26. The two schools will meet for the third time this season having split the first two games. The Rams are 1-0 all-time against New Mexico in MWC Tournaments. The Rams eliminated the Lobos in semifinal action in 2000-01, 70-65.
SOPHOMORE SENSATION: Sophomore Mandi Moore scored a combined 12 points in two previous meetings with San Diego State this season. In the quarterfinal game against the Aztecs she had a game-high 11 points at the half and finished with 15 points. It was Moore’s 10th game scoring in double-figures and her first in seven games.
PREVIOUSLY: In three meetings this season, the Lobos outscored the Aztecs 107-59 in the first half.
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.
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 1,691 career points.
REJECTION: The Lobos have 116 blocks on the season. Every player on the team can say they have at least one rejection. Jordan Adams leads the Lobos with 68 blocks. The senior had her streak of at least one block broken against Colorado State. Against SDSU in the MWC Tournament, she blocked five shots setting a MWC Championship single-game record.
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 186 more rebounds then its opponents, averaging 41.0 to 34.4 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.
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 81 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 (59).
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 55.4 points a game.
D-FENCE: UNM has outrebounded its opponents defensively in 18 games this year. Currently UNM has 787 defensive boards to its opponents 640. The Lobos are 18-3 when they grab more defensive boards than their opponents.
ALL-CONFERENCE: Senior Jordan Adams has been was named MWC first team for the first time. Adams has been second and third team all-conference but this is her first time on the first team. Chelsea Grear was chosen second-team and Mandi Moore was placed on the third-team.
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.
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.
GIVE ME A HAND: 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 186 this season. Moore is currently fourth all-time at UNM with 332 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.
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