June 21, 2004
– The New Mexico women’s basketball team finished its 26th year of women’s basketball with a 23-8 overall record, the eighth consecutive season of .500 or better and the fourth consecutive season of 20 or more wins.
The Lobos began the season winning five of their first six games but only finished the non-conference portion of their schedule 8-5. The young Lobos rebounded though in the conference season going 12-2, including an eight game win streak to end the regular season. New Mexico’s 12-2 regular season conference record gave them a share of their first regular season Mountain West Conference title and the number one seed in the MWC Tournament.
The MWC Tournament was held at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colo., for the first time in conference history. The Lobos entered the tournament on an eight game winning streak and opened with a 63-50 win over Air Force to advance to the semifinals. In the semifinals New Mexico downed Wyoming 59-52 and setup the regular season co-champions in the finals. The Lobos dominated Utah 71-50 to claim their second consecutive MWC Tournament championship and earn a bid to their third consecutive NCAA Tournament.
New Mexico entered the NCAA Tournament on an 11 game winning streak, which was tied for the longest in school history. The Lobos earned the number 12 seed in the Midwest Regional and would play the number five seed Florida Gators at The Pit. With an electric crowd at The Pit, the Lobos could not overcome an early deficit and fell to the Gators 68-56.
Individually for the Lobos, three players earned all-conference honors. Junior Lindsey Arndt was named to the first team, junior Mandi Moore was named to the second team and senior Melissa Forest was named to the third team. Arndt was also named the MWC Tournament MVP and joined Forest on the MWC Tournament All-Tournament team.
For the first time in New Mexico women’s basketball history the Lobos were ranked number one in NCAA division one in defense. The Lobos were ranked first in both scoring defense allowing 51.1 points per game and field goal percentage at 33.3 percent a game. New Mexico was also ranked 16th in turnovers at 14.0 per game, 20th in blocked shots at 4.7 per game and 29th in scoring margin at 10.6.
HOME SWEET HOME:One of the great home court advantages in all of college basketball, The Pit began year No. 26 with three consecutive victories over USC, Cal State Fullerton and Youngstown State. In conference play this season New Mexico went a perfect 7-0. The Lobos finished the 2003-04 season with a 14-4 record at home. UNM went 17-2 at home in 2002-03, and since Don Flanagan took over the coaching duties in 1995-96, the Lobos have a record of 124-29 (81.0%).
UNM had a 24-game home-winning streak going between 1998-99. The Lobos started the streak on Jan. 11, 1998 by defeating Wyoming, 72-45. The streak ended when the Lobos lost to Drake in the post season WNIT by a score of 73-60. In 2002-03 the Lobos had two eight-game winning streaks.
PACKING THE PIT:UNM averaged 11,865 a game in 2003-04, which was fourth in the NCAA behind Tennessee, Connecticut and Texas Tech. The Lobos had 12 crowds in excess of 10,000 in 2003-04. The New Mexico women’s basketball record for attendance was set in 2003-03 at 11,896 fans a game,
BEST MWC RECORD:The 12-2 record in the Mountain West Conference in 2003-04 is tied for the best conference record ever at UNM. The 12-2 record is also the best ever by UNM in the MWC with the Lobos previous best at 10-4 in the 2001-02 season. The 2003-04 team tie UNM’s best conference record when they went 12-2 in the WAC in 1998-99 and split the Pacific Division Championship.
MWC REGULAR SEASON CO-CHAMPS:The New Mexico Lobos claimed a share of their first Mountain West Conference regular season championship with a 59-62 win over Colorado State. The Lobos share the championship with Utah. UNM though claimed the first seed at the MWC Tournament due to a split in the head to head series and UNM is 2-0 against third place UNLV, while Utah is 1-1 against the Lady Rebels. The last time UNM won a conference championship was in 1998-99 when they won a share of the WAC Pacific Division.
FOREST LEADING THE LOBOS:Melissa Forest was first on the team in scoring and second in rebounding in 2003-04. UNM was 13-1 on the season when Forest led the team in either scoring or rebounding, including a 7-1 record when she leads both categories.
THE MAGIC NUMBER IS 59: Although the Lobos held opponents to 51.1 points a game the magic number for the Lobos is 59. When New Mexico scored at least 59 points they were 17-0, while UNM was only 6-7 when scoring under 59 points.
MOORE ON TOP:Junior guard Mandi Moore is the UNM all-time assist leader with 490 assists passing Tamika Stukes at 469. Moore broke the record on March 4, against Wyoming, a game in which she had a season high 11 assists. Moore began the season in fourth and moved into third place on the UNM all-time assists list passing Jean Rostermundt at 387 and then into second passing Nikki Heckroth at 424. Moore finished the season with 138 assists.
20 WINS AGAIN:New Mexico won 20 games for the fourth consecutive season. The Lobos have won at least 20 games in six of coach Flanagan’s nine years. UNM’s best record came in the 1997-98 season when they went 26-7.
BEST IN THE COUNTRY:The Lobos finished the season as the best defensive team in NCAA Division I women’s basketball according to the NCAA as of April 7. UNM finished first in both field goal percentage defense at 33.3 percent a game and scoring defense at 51.1 ppg. The Lobos are also ranked in the top 30 in turnovers (16th) committing 14.0 a game, blocked shots (20th) with 4.7 a game and scoring margin (29th) at 10.6 a game.
WHO LEADS THE WAY:The Lobos in 2003-04 had seven different players lead them in scoring in 31 games. Senior Melissa Forest led UNM as the top scorer in 10 games. On the boards eight different players in 31 games have led New Mexico. This balance occurred in all of the major statistical categories for the Lobos.
BALANCED GAME:Coach Flanagan played everyone on the roster in 16 of the 31 games this season and has played everyone in uniform in 17 of the 31 games. Melissa Forest did not dress against Utah. Only one player did not play double-digit minutes against New Mexico Highlands and only two players did not register double-digit minutes against San Diego State. In the San Diego State game everybody scored and in the Highlands game everybody but freshman Timi E-Nunu scored.
RETURN TO SENDER:The Lobos finished 20th in the NCAA in blocked shots. In the MWC Tournament quarterfinals against Air Force, New Mexico blocked a MWC Tournament record 10 shots. The Lobo defense blocked a school record tying 14 shots against Texas Southern. UNM also recorded 12 blocks against New Mexico Highlands, which is tied for the sixth most blocks in a game in school history. New Mexico recorded double digit block games six times in 2003-04. The Lobos finished the season averaging 4.8 blocks a game.
MAKING THE GRADE IN 2003:The New Mexico women’s basketball continued their solid tradition of excelling in the classroom in the Fall semester. The Lobos as a team posted a 3.44 GPA, which was the second best in team history behind the 3.52 in the Fall of 2002.
FOREST NAMED TO ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT VI SECOND TEAM:Melissa Forest, senior forward on the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team, was named to the second team Academic All-District VI Team. Forest garnered second-team honors with a 3.84 GPA as an accounting major. Forest was tied for the team lead in scoring at 10.4 ppg and second on the team in rebounding at 6.9 rpg.
In order to be eligible for the team, a student-athlete must have at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average, must be a starter or important reserve and must be in at least their second season of competition at their current school.
The teams were selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). CoSIDA District VI is comprised of the states of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.
WHO’S IN THE STARTING LINEUP:Head coach Don Flanagan used 16 different starting lineups in 31 games. Flanagan started the same lineup for the first time in the San Francisco game and used the same lineup in both games against New Mexico State and at Texas. Only junior Mandi Moore was in the starting lineup in all 31 games. Other players who started during the 2003-04 season are seniors Melissa Forest and Lauren McLeod, junior Lindsey Arndt and Jenny Shetters, sophomores Jana Francis, Abbie Letz and Judy Vogt and freshmen Julie Briody, Katie Montgomery and Fatima Maddox. The only players who did not started are freshmen Wande Olude and Timi E-Nunu.
BENCH POINTS:The University of New Mexico bench outscored opponents 723-410. In 2003-04 UNM’s bench was only outscored eight times by Florida (24-20), Air Force (12-6), Utah (22-20), BYU twice (22-13 & 30-15), Texas (40-20), Villanova (35-24) and South Carolina (29-17) and in those games UNM was 3-5. In the other 23 games the Lobo bench dominated their opponents 584-192. Against New Mexico Highlands, the bench outscored NMHU 51-12, while in the USC game the bench scored 42 of the Lobos 77 points and outscored USC’s bench 42-31. The Lobos leading scorer came off the bench in eight of UNM’s 31 games. The leading scorers off the bench were freshmen Katie Montgomery at 5.2 ppg and freshmen Fatima Maddox at 5.0 ppg.