New Mexico Lobos Women’s Basketball – In WisePies Arena
Saturday: New Mexico 63, Nevada 45
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com.
Lobo Coach Yvonne Sanchez said, “It was a fun game.” And it was. The New Mexico Lobos women’s basketball team emptied its bench as 14 Lobos put their names on the official box score.
Sanchez was able to empty her bench because of the nature of the game. It was yet another Mountain West romp for the Lobos as they beat Nevada 63-45.
“I wanted to give everybody work,” said Sanchez. “This was a team effort.”
The Lobos didn’t exactly burn the nets Saturday in WisePies Arena shooting 37.9 percent. But the Lobos really put the hammer down on defense. Nevada shot 37.2 percent from the floor, but the Wolf Pack had a season-high 23 turnovers – 15 in the second half when the Pack needed to stage a rally to get back on the scoreboard.
UNM was up 34-20 at the half and never allowed Nevada to scratch back into contention. The Lobos won their seventh straight Mountain West game and it is no coincident that the Lobos have held their last seven opponents to under 40 percent shooting.
“I thought our kids played really well,” said Sanchez, who say her team move to 14-10 overall and 10-3 in the Mountain West race. “I can’t be any prouder of our team. I’m ecstatic for them. We had a difficult start.
“It’s a fun ride and we need to keep going and going and see what happens.”
So far, what has happened is the Lobos have worked their way up the Mountain West ladder – all the way to the top. New Mexico and Colorado State are 10-3 with Fresno State at 9-3. Fresno State lost in overtime 75-66 to Boise State. Colorado State beat San Diego State on Saturday 65-42 to stay locked with the Lobos.
The Lobos got 20 point from Antiesha Brown, who went 9-of-14 from the floor and 1-of-1 from 3-point range.
“Antiesha Brown had a senior-leader type effort,” said Sanchez.
The Lobos got eight points from both Alexa Chavez and Kianna Keller. It was a good day for other Lobos to pick up the scoring slack as Khadijah Shumpert scored only four points and Bryce Owens did not score a field goal going 0-of-9 from the floor.
“Bryce had a heck of a game managing the game,” said Sanchez. “She didn’t make any shots today, but she managed her team well.”
The Lobos did a good job inside on Nevada’s 6-foot-8 Mimi Mungedi – well, in keeping the tall post player from going off on the scoreboard. Mungedi had 11 points, but only took eight shots and went 1-of-6 from the free-throw line. Mungedi did haul down 17 boards.
“They did a terrific job holding her to 11 points,” Sanchez said of her interior defenders. “She had 17 rebounds, but she is hard to keep off the boards.
One area the Lobos took advantage of was scoring off the Nevada turnovers. The Wolf Pack had those 23 turnovers that UNM converted into 21 points. UNM had 24 points off the bench – a key stat when starters are having an off night scoring. UNM also had 18 offensive rebounds and 19 second-chance points.
Nevada scored well inside with 26 points in the paint and the Pack got 25 points off the bench. However, Nevada only scored eight points off UNM’s 10 turnovers. Nevada had 10 second-chance points.