New Mexico Lobos Women’s Basketball – at New Mexico State
New Mexico State 70, New Mexico Lobos 59
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
There wasn’t much of a silver lining in this one. Lobo senior Antiesha Brown had a season-high 22 points and New Mexico crushed the New Mexico State Aggies 41-25 on the boards. However, Lobo Coach Yvonne Sanchez was not happy with her Lobos after Sunday’s 70-59 fall in Las Cruces.
“You have to come out and play and it doesn’t matter who you play,” said Sanchez, whose Lobos drop to 1-7 on the season. “If you love competing, you play hard. You play smart and you play together. We aren’t good enough to play badly and win.
“We were ready for everything they showed us today and then our kids don’t do it (execute). It’s really too bad that they would give up an opportunity to compete and at least put themselves in a position to win the game and we didn’t give ourselves a chance.”
The Aggies came out of the halftime break up 31-27 and steadily extended their lead. They were up 39-29 at the 17:03 mark and up 56-36 with 10:26 to play. The Lobos went on a 9-0 run to cut NMSU’s lead to 56-45 with 7:16 to play and there was a spark of hope for Sanchez’s Lobos.
The Aggies then bombed in back-to-back treys and the home team was up 62-45 with 5:43 to go and that pretty much ended it. UNM hit some treys in the final minutes to make the final score a bit more respectable.
“They hit open shots. They did a nice job,” said Sanchez. “We did everything to prepare. We watched enough film. Why we were timid, why we were afraid, I have no idea. Tiesha had 22 points, but where were those shots at the beginning of the game. You can’t wait until you are down with two minutes left in the game.”
The Lobos hurt themselves with 25 turnovers and UNM’s turnover to assist ratio was 25-to-8. Khadijah Shumpert had 12 points and seven boards, but only took six shots going 3-of-6 from the floor. Bryce Owens had eight points and seven boards.
UNM shot 41.2 percent from the floor, but the Aggies used a second-half percentage of 59.3 percent to finish at 48.1 percent. The Aggies went 10-of-25 from 3-point range and Sasha Weber led all scorers with 23 points. The Aggies also got 12 points from Zaire Williams and 10 points from Shanice Davis.
“They came out and they were the aggressors and we got on our heels early and we didn’t set the tone,” said Brown. “It’s really frustrating. We have to get up for everybody. We can’t look past teams because we’ve played Top Ten teams. We have to be ready to play every game and be ready to be the aggressors.
“Collectively, I’m not sure (we were mentally ready). As a collective whole, we didn’t come out the way we needed to.”
The loss snapped a 12-game win streak by New Mexico over the Aggies. UNM also had won 34 of the past 35 games.
“I know both teams are struggling, but this does mean a lot to us,” said NMSU Coach Mark Trakh “We hadn’t beaten them in a long time. We did a good job pressuring them. Sasha Weber was big time, big time.”
UNM’s Kianna Keller, Alexa Chavez and Josie Greenwood each had five boards. Brown had six boards and four assists. Cherise Beynon had seven turnovers, Brown had four and Chavez had three. NMSU was 6-of-12 from 3-point range in the second half which helped the Aggies distance themselves from UNM on the scoreboard.
The win was the second of the season for the Aggies, who also beat Eastern New Mexico. NMSU is 2-5. The Lobos next game is Dec. 14 in WisePies Arena vs. UTEP.