New Mexico Women’s Basketball — At The Maggie Dixon Classic
When/Where: Friday-Saturday-Sunday – McGrath-Phillips Arena – Chicago
Friday: Texas Pan American 61, New Mexico 59
Saturday: 3 p.m. (MT), Lobos vs. Texas A&M. Sunday: 3:30 p.m. (MT) Lobos vs. DePaul
On The Air: 610-AM KNML with Joe Behrend. GoLobos.com: Game Story, Complete Stats
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
The lesson learned by Yvonne Sanchez’s Lobos in Chicago was a tough one: You put yourself into an 18-point hole and sometimes heart and courage won’t pull you out of it.
The New Mexico Lobos (0-1) fell behind 38-20 at the half to Texas Pan American Friday at the Maggie Dixon Classic — made a courageous, Antiesha Brown/Khadijah Shumpert-led charge – but fell 61-59 in the season opener.
“We just didn’t have a very good first half,” said Sanchez. “When you are down 18 points in the first half, it could have gone ugly. I’m proud of the way they came back. I’m proud of my kids. But we have to have a better first half. It’s a tough loss and a difficult loss.”
The Lobos got 19 points from Brown and a double-double from Shumpert, who had 17 points and 14 boards.
The Lobos’ rally came in the final 11:58. UNM was down 45-28 to the Broncs. The Lobos outscored UTPA 31-to-16 the rest of the way, but missed the chance to finish the dramatic rally when a 3-pointer by Bryce Owens just nicked the rim shortly before the final buzzer.
Owens had nine points for UNM followed by Alexa Chavez with five points.
“We had the right play called and we had a wide-open three by Bryce. It just didn’t go in,” said Sanchez. “It takes a lot of guts to shoot that ball and I don’t mind the shot. But I need to get the guards on track. They need to start knocking down shots.”
The Lobos had 18 turnovers in the first half and ended the game with 28 miscues. UNM shot 54 percent in the second half and the Broncs shot 15 percent in the final half. UTPA had 12 more points at the line. The Broncs shot 37 free shots and UNM shot 22.
“We fouled too much and we had too many turnovers,” said Sanchez. “There is no excuse. We have to get better.”
The Lobos will play No. 5 Texas A&M at 3 p.m., Saturday and end the tournament Sunday against the host team, No. 18 DePaul.
“It doesn’t get any easier,” said Sanchez. “We came here to win basketball games and we’ll see what happens with the next two games.”
DePaul returns four starters, but Texas A&M returns 83 percent of the scoring from last year’s team that went 27-9 and reached the Elite Eight. The Aggies have three Preseason All-Americans: juniors Jordan Jones, Courtney Walker and Courtney Williams.
The Blue Demons beat Robert Morris 137-76 in DePaul’s final exhibition game with eight players reaching double figures. The Blue Demons went 16-of-34 from 3-point range. They won the board battle 60-21 and had 30 assists and forced Robert Morris into 27 turnovers.
UNM had six players with three or more turnovers. UNM shot 26.9 percent in the first half and 40.4 percent for the game. Brown went 6-of-14 from the floor, Shumpert 6-of-12 and Owens 4-of-13. No other Lobo took more than three shots. Cherise Beynon had eight boards and Brown added six boards.
UTPA had 14 steals to two for the Lobos. The Broncs (1-0) were led by Shawnte Goff with 21 points.
Second Half: New Mexico 39, Texas Pan American 23
The Lobos came out of the locker room down by 18 and at the 11:58 mark of the second half had only chipped a single point off UTPA’s lead: 45-28. UNM had its scoreboard hole down to 40-26, but lost some inside muscle at that point as Shumpert went to the bench with four fouls.
Brown got five unanswered points to pull the Lobos to 45-33. Brown completed an old-fashion 3-point play to make it 47-35. The Broncs were not shooting well from the floor at that point but used the free-throw line to hold on to a respectable lead.
But the Lobos were still making a steady charge. At 9:56, UNM was down 48-38. Brown scored inside for UNM followed by a Shumpert bucket: 49-42. UTPA, up seven, called time at 8:53 looking to find a way to slow down the Antiesha Brown-led Lobo charge. A Brown trey made it 52-45. The UNM senior had 17 points.
Shumpert was fouled inside. The Lobo post hit two free shots and pulled UNM into a 54-46 hole – down seven. At 6:15, it was 56-49 on another Shumpert bucket. UTPA missed inside and Owens scored in transition: 56-51.
Goff scored two at the line (58-51) and a Lobo turnover got UTPA another free throw: 59-51. UTPA got the rebound on the miss and Goff went back to the line: 61-51. The Broncs had a 10-point lead at 3:54.
Shumpert and Brown scored for the Lobos to cut their deficit to 61-56. UNM called time with the clock ticking down to the two-minute mark. UTPA needed to get to the line, but instead launched a trey and missed. UNM got the board and worked Brown into a look from 3-point range. She missed and UTPA had the ball, also missed, and UNM got the ball with 1:13 to play, down five points.
Kenya Pye drove for UNM and got fouled with 54 seconds to go. She missed four free shots – with the help of two consecutive lane violations by UTPA – but UNM got the ball back on a jump-ball possession. UNM’s Owens hit a trey with 43 ticks to go: 61-59. UTPA needed a bucket and UNM needed a stop.
The Broncs missed with 20 seconds to play. The Lobos had their stop. Owens got off a trey just before the buzzer, missed, and Pan Am escaped with the two-point win.
First Half: Texas Pan American 38, New Mexico 20
A few bad numbers told the story for the Lobos in the first half. They were down 18 points to the Broncs. The Lobos had committed 18 turnovers. UNM also was whistled for 16 fouls and UTPA went 14-of-21 from the line. The Broncs gave up only five turnovers.
The Lobos shot 26.9 percent (7-of-26) in the half and UTPA shot a sizzling 41.7 percent (10-of-24). UTPA outscored UNM by 12 points (4-of-7) from 3-point range. The Lobos best effort in the first half came on the glass where they had a 27-14 edge with Shumpert leading the way with eight boards. UNM got 11 points from its starters and UTPA got 26 points from its starters. Goff led the Broncs with 13 points and Kaelynn Boyd came off the bench to chip in 10 points. Alexa Chavez led UNM with five points.
The Lobos jumped up 4-1, but six UNM turnovers in the first four minutes helped Texas Pan American claim a 5-4 lead going into the first media break at 15:53. The Broncs went up 10-4 before UNM rallied into a 10-all tie. UTPA went up 14-10: UNM had ten points, ten turnovers and nine fouls. At the 7:33 media stop, Texas Pan Am was up 19-10 as the Lobos continued to hurt their cause with 14 turnovers at that point.
The Broncs continued to shoot well. They drifted up 19-10, 24-11 29-13 and carried a 35-16 lead into the final media timeout of the half at 3:39. UTPA ended the half up 38-20.