New Mexico Lobos Women’s Basketball – On The Road
Who: New Mexico Lobos (1-6) at New Mexico State (1-5)
When/Where: 2 p.m. (MT), Sunday – Pan American Center – Las Cruces
Lobos On The Air: 610-AM with Joe Behrend; ESPN3/Comcast 77
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
The double-edged sword that awaits Yvonne Sanchez’s Lobos in the Pan American Center on Sunday promises both pain and joy. That’s the nature of that idiomatic weapon: good and bad.
The obvious joy would be for the Lobos’ to beat the New Mexico State Aggies and wash away some of the bitter taste from New Mexico’s 86-37 loss at No. 4 Texas. You beat the Aggies any time, any place, and it’s a good moment for Lobos. It’s a bite of sweetness.
The Lobos also just need a win.
But that sword has a threatening and nasty reverse side. A loss to the 1-5 Aggies will make the bus ride back to Albuquerque a bit longer for the Lobos, who have struggled to a 1-6 start.
“We need a win,” said Lobo Coach Yvonne Sanchez. “But this team is resilient. It will go out and play hard.”
“Hard” also is a good way to describe a Lobo schedule that has featured No. 5 Texas A&M, No. 18 DePaul, No. 1 Stanford and No. 4 Texas. You replace that meat with some creampuffs and Sanchez could be sitting on a 5-2 record.
But Sanchez’s goal in 2014 is to win the Mountain West title and you don’t toughen up a team for a championship run with a walk through a bakery shop. UNM’s first seven foes combined for a 38-12 mark through 50 games.
The Aggies obviously aren’t Texas or Stanford, but they defend their turf with pride and effort. Sanchez also has some scoreboard material to help get her hungry Lobos focused on Sunday’s task in the Pan Am Center.
The Lobos beat Eastern New Mexico 61-49 in exhibition – a 12-point Pit win. The Aggies pounded Eastern 79-51 last week in regular-season play – a 28-point win in Cruces. The Lobos obviously have been toughened up by a challenging schedule since then, but that win has to give the Aggies confidence looking at a 1-6 UNM squad.
“We played with confidence and played to the end,” said Aggie Coach Mark Trakh.
The Aggies were led in that win by junior guard Sasha Weber with a career-high 23 points. She went 8-of-12 from the field and added four steals on defense. She had good help out front from guard Moriah Mack, who had 10 points. Freshman guard Zaire Williams and sophomore guard Tamera William added eight points apiece.
“Sasha finally played the way she is capable of playing and Shanice Davis was great at the point guard position again,” Trakh said. “We are still continuing to improve and looking forward to the rest of the season.”
The Aggies like to beat you with guard play, but they have inside scoring in 6-1 Brianna Freeman (10.0 points per game) and 6-1 Abby Scott (7.0).
Weber averages 12.5 points, but NMSU’s top scorer this season is 5-foot-6 point guard Shanice Davis with a 13.7 average. Davis dishes out 4.3 assists per game.
Of course, the Aggies are looking forward to the visit by the Lobos. The Aggies are not thrilled with their 1-5 start and do not have a win against a D-I opponent. The Eastern Zias are D-II.
There will be a lot of joy in Cruces if the Lobos fall. The Lobos are riding a 12-game win streak over NMSU and the Lobos have won 34 of the last 35 meetings.
The Aggies’ key to their romp over Eastern was shooting 44.6 percent from the floor and grabbing 16 steals. Eastern (30 points from Tori Tucker) had 27 turnovers. The Aggies’ pressure turned into transition buckets for the quick NMSU guards. The Aggies also launched 26 3-pointers over the Eastern defense, but only made seven.
The Lobos will be tougher, taller and quicker than Eastern. UNM is led in scoring by Antiesha Brown with a 13.4 average. Khadijah Shumpert is UNM’s go-to player inside with an 11.3 average. Bryce Owens scores at an 8.2 clip, but her call of duty vs. the Aggies also will be to break the NMSU pressure and defend one of NMSU’s quick guards.
The Aggies’ schedule hasn’t been as tough as UNM’s slate, but the Aggies have been tested. They have played UTEP, Boise State, Weber State and Cal Fullerton.
An obvious key to beating NMSU is not to let them run. They scored 97 in a double-overtime loss (100-97) to Weber State and scored 85 at Sacramento State. Boise State held NMSU to 45 points and Fullerton beat NMSU 66-51. Boise beat NMSU on the board 49-34 and hit 11 treys. Fullerton beat the Aggies on the glass 43-34.