Stevens: Lobos To Play Defensive-Minded Utah State

January 09, 2015

New Mexico Lobos Women’s Basketball – In WisePies Arena/The Pit

Who/When: 2 p.m., Saturday — Utah State (3-12, 0-3 MW) at New Mexico (5-9, 1-2 MW)

On The air: 610-AM with Joe Behrend

By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com

Lobo Coach Yvonne Sanchez says she isn’t paying too much attention to the Utah State record, which is 3-12. She says the Aggies are much better than that. They won’t roll into WisePies Arena on Saturday and roll over.

“They are a team that you can’t let their record fool you,” said Sanchez.

Sanchez is paying attention to the Utah State defense. It’s kind of what the Aggies are hanging their hats on until the offense starts clicking.

“They are a scrappy, scrappy group,” said Sanchez. “They are tough. They are physical. They like to switch up defenses. They press. They mix things up.

“It’s a good team.”

The Aggies in their own media notes admit there is a search for consistency on the Utah State offense. The Aggie defense is doing well – especially of late.

In the past nine games, no Utah State opponent has shot better than 40 percent from the field and the average for that nine-game stretch is 37.6 percent. The Aggies have held seven opponents under 30 percent this season and held Pacific to 12 percent shooting. They can be pretty nasty on defense.

What the Aggies need to do on defense is what every other team tries to do vs. UNM: contain Antiesha Brown and Khadijah Shumpert and force other Lobos to beat you.

Brown, a mobile, slasher with a nice pull-up jumper, tops the Lobos with a 14.4 scoring average. Khadijah Shumpert, a hard worker inside, has a 12.3 average. Guard Bryce Owens has the next biggest scoring punch for UNM with a 7.8 average.

The Lobos are riding a four-game Pit win streak at the Aggies and defense is a big to that run. The Lobos held San Diego State to four second-half baskets on Wednesday in posting a 62-53 Mountain West win. A win over Utah State would even the Lobos’ league record to 2-2.

The Lobos also have been pretty nasty on defense especially in the past two MW game. The Lobos held Colorado State to 34.6 percent shooting and held San Diego State 35.4 percent. The CSU Rams scored only 44 points on their home court.

You do that on defense and you will win a few games. UNM also has forced an average of 20 turnovers over the past four games.

The Lobos’ problem sometimes is on offense. They scored 38 points at CSU shooting 25 percent from the field. The Lobos shot 41.5 percent in The Pit win over SDSU – much better.

The Aggies are coming off their highest scoring game of the season which still resulted in a 70-64 home loss to Fresno State. Freshman Funda Nakkasoglu had 19 points and five assists. The 5-7 guard is averaging 14.5 points on the year.

Nakkasoglu is the only Utah State starter in double figures. However, Jasmine Porter scored 14 points vs. Fresno State and 6-foot-1 Ingrida Strikas added 12 points and seven rebounds.

The Aggies bring a six-game losing streak into The Pit, but none of those losses were more than 10 points.

“They are a group that is hungry for a win, but so are we,” said Sanchez. “And we have to protect our home court.

“Utah State beat us three times last year. We understand how good they are and how well coached they are. We have to bring the same energy we brought to the second half against San Diego State, make shots, look for our posts, get the ball down the court and eliminate turnovers.

“They (Aggies) do everything. They run. They shoot threes. They post up inside. We have to go out and play team basketball in order to beat them.”

New Mexico Lobos 2014-15 Season Roster

No.