New Mexico Lobos Women’s Basketball – In WisePies Arena/The Pit
When/Who: 2 p.m., Saturday – Nevada (7-15, 3-8 MW) at New Mexico (13-10, 9-3)
On The Air: 610-AM with Joe Behrend and Nikki Heckroth-Lovato
GoLobos.com: Game Story, Complete Stats. LoboTV, Quote Package
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
“There is not a team in our conference we don’t respect,” said Lobo Antiesha Brown.
In a way, that is part of the reason the New Mexico Lobos women’s basketball team is steamrolling through the Mountain West conference.
“It’s that one-game-at-a-time mentality. And, really, it works.
Lobo Coach Yvonne Sanchez will throw another ingredient into this impressive stew of Lobos that are making a hard charge at the 2015 Mountain West title. Her Lobos have bought into the reality that you have to keep improving because that’s what everybody else is trying to do, too.
“We’ve just got to keep getting better; we do,” said Sanchez. “I know it’s a cliché and it’s a coach thing, but we do. You can’t rest on this (UNM’s 67-40 roll of Colorado State.”
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Lately, the Lobos have not been resting or coasting or looking past anyone. They have won nine home games in a row for the first time since the 2008-09 season. They have six Mountain West games in a row.
There is no question that the 27-point win over Colorado State was the most impressive win of the season.
That makes the Nevada game Saturday in WisePies Arena pretty important. You can’t beat CSU and then give one back by not being ready for Nevada.
“We’ve got Nevada coming on Saturday and they’re going to want to win,” said Sanchez.. “We can’t win Saturday’s game (Nevada) because of our performance (vs. CSU).
“We’ve got a whole other performance to give.”
The romp over CSU was both surprising and not surprising. The Lobos have a huge hunk of talent and are capable of rocking any team in the Mountain West. But UNM also has been involved in a lot of close games. The Lobos’ six-game win streak includes wins by three points, two points and five points.
“We’ve won the close games and it was against teams that had similar records and were struggling a little bit,” said Sanchez.
The Rams weren’t struggling. Nevada has been struggling.
The Wolf Pack was on an eight-game losing skid that was snapped 49-44 at home with a MW win Wednesday night over Utah State. Utah State is a solid Mountain West team. It’s probably better for the Lobos’ motivational level that Nevada comes into The Pit off a win rather than on a nine-game losing streak.
The Wolf Pack brings a player who should be a challenge for the UNM defense. Mimi Mungedi scored 15 points and had 14 rebounds in the win over Utah State. The 6-foot-8 senior had 24 points and set a league record with 29 rebounds in an 80-77 home loss to San Jose State.
Those 29 boards is the best rebounding performance in D-1 ball this season. Nevada had an amazing 74 rebounds as a team.
“Obviously, we have to keep (Mungedi) off the boards,” said Sanchez.
You probably need to limit Mungedi on the scoreboard, too. She is Nevada’s go-to player. She brings a 12.6 scoring average and a 9.3 board average into WisePies Arena. The 6-foot Emily Burns is the next leading scorer for the Pack at 9.4 points per game. She also can be tough on the boards with a 6.6 average.
The Wolfpack has a handful of Lobos to watch as Antiesha Brown, Khadijah Shumpert, Bryce Owens and Cherise Beynon have been scoring well lately. Those four Lobo guns average 8.4 points to 13.7 points (Brown).
An obvious challenge for the Lobos in attacking the glass is the 6-8 Mungedi. She is Nevada’s career shot blocker leader and doesn’t just swat shots, but also intimidates shots. Nevada leans on its inside game behind Mungedi and Burns. The Wolf Pack lost starting point guard T Moe to an ACL injury and also lost a promising freshman guard to an ACL tear.
Nevada was picked in the preseason poll to finish fifth, but injuries have influenced their fall. UNM was picked ninth.
“Anyone can win in this conference,” said Beynon. “We just need to keep the same enthusiasm, same energy and the same team effort when we get the next opponent coming into our house.”