By Greg Archuleta
UNM Assistant Director of Communications
It was an adjustment playing against a bigger, stronger and faster opponent, but the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team showed signs Saturday that it refuses to be pushed around.
The Lobos held their first scrimmage of the year at the Pit against a collection of male practice players. The practice squad defeated the Lobos 63-50, but coach Yvonne Sanchez’s squad’s confidence grew as the game went on and played their counterparts even in the second half.
“We started working together a little bit as a team, especially at the end,” Sanchez said. “We pushed back, after being a little scared at first. They didn’t bully us, out-physical us or out-muscle us; we just made some mistakes and they capitalized on them.”
Early on, the practice squad was using its physical advantage to chisel a double-digit first-half lead. After that, the Lobos grabbed hold of the chisel and fought back.
Junior forward Khadijah Shumpert scored 17 points and pulled down six rebounds, as UNM found it could go big and do some damage. Sanchez inserted three post players for much of the second half and got some rhythm and flow out of her team in the second half.
“We went to a big lineup because we just weren’t rebounding,” Sanchez said. “We had a lot of small guards out there (initially), but I really do like the big lineup. We just might play with that a little more.
The Lobos used a rotation of Shumpert, senior Ebony Walker, junior Alexa Chavez and sophomores Kianna Keller and Josie Greenwood and kept the practice squad from extending its lead.
Greenwood came off the bench and had a nice game with six points on 3-of-5 shooting with two steals, one assist and one rebound. Chavez grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and had a steal.
Shumpert pushed up her scoring total, thanks to a much-improved free-throw stroke. A 59-percent shooter from the line last season, the junior hit 9 of 10 from the stripe on Saturday.
“As long as I’ve played, I’ve (gotten fouled) a lot,” Shumpert said. “The difference is last year, I wasn’t making the free throws. So I worked on it in the offseason, and that’s something I’m going to focus on – finishing the play by making the free throw.”
The Lobos played without senior guard Antiesha Brown, who still is recovering from surgery to repair a ligament in her shooting hand. She is expected to be cleared to practice at the start of next month.
Sanchez said her team still had too many turnovers (charged with 18), and said her point guards have to focus on managing the game.
But the fact that the Lobos had an alternative with the use of the bigs exhibits the depth this year’s team has that could help it when the game count for real starting next month.
“It’s fun to see the different lineups Coach puts together because so many players on our team are extremely athletic,” Shumpert said. “She put in three posts today, and we did perfectly fine. “We can do four guards, and we’ll still be OK.”
Sanchez said she plans on having another scrimmage against the male practice players after seeing the value of Saturday’s game.
“It’s a great setting that our kids can play in and not beat up each other,” she said. “That’s a good thing.