New Mexico Lobos Women’s Basketball – On The Mountain West Road
Who/When: Wednesday: New Mexico (14-10, 10-3 MW) at San Diego State (9-15, 6-7)
On The Air: 610 KNML with Joe Behrend
GoLobos.com: Game Story, Game Box Score
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com.
The primary target for New Mexico Lobo opponents is becoming more obvious as senior Antiesha Brown throws in more and more points – and is playing more and more aggressively.
Like a senior should.
Brown is coming off a 20-point effort vs. Nevada, but the San Diego State Aztecs got a 21-point taste of Brown’s talents in SDSU’s 62-53 loss in The Pit on Jan. 7.
The Aztecs know they have to slow down Brown, but can anybody really do that. Brown is quick, athletic and determined.
She also is quick to divert attention and praise. Like all these Lobos, they look within themselves for improvement and effort, but they look outside themselves to share the reasons for success.
“We’re playing for something bigger than ourselves,” said Brown. “We are playing for our community and the tradition of Lobo basketball. We have a good group of girls and we are having fun.”
Yep, winning is fun, but the tradition of Lobo women’s basketball has hit some hard times over the past years. The Lobo team heading into San Diego for a Mountain West battle Wednesday night with San Diego State appears destined to recapture some of that lost glory.
The Lobos have thrown out back-to-back league romps over Colorado State and Nevada and currently ride a seven-game Mountain West win streak. The Lobos also have won ten of their past 11 games with the only fall coming by 21 points at Boise State.
The Aztecs are having an up and down season, but they are 4-2 in Viejas Arena during Mountain West play and 6-5 at home overall. They had an impressive 57-40 roll of Boise State in Viejas before going on the road and losing at Wyoming (74-66) and at Colorado State (65-42).
The Aztecs are coming off that loss at Colorado State. The Aztecs went cold in the second half in Fort Collins, Colo., shooting 29 percent and only scoring 13 second-half points. Aztecs Erimma Amarikwa and Khristina Hunter were held to a combined three points. The Aztecs also damaged their cause with 20 turnovers.
Of course, Lobo Coach Yvonne Sanchez knows better than to look past any team.
“They are playing awfully well, exceptionally well, and they are winning games at home,” said Sanchez. “They have an athletic team with a very good post (Amarikwa). She is playing awfully well.”
The CSU Rams had a good solution for Amarikwa inside: don’t let her shoot. Amarikwa went 1-of-3 from the floor in 19 minutes and only scored two points. She will bring a 10.9 average at the Lobos followed by teammate McKynzie Fort with a 10.1 scoring average. Hunter is next with a modest 7.4 scoring average.
The Aztecs have had their share of problems scoring points and average 56.1 points per game. However, the Aztecs can cause problems with their quick, swarming defense.
“They post a challenge to our offense because they will try to keep us on the perimeter and we don’t want to settle for jump shots,” said Sanchez. “And we’ll challenge them to shoot from the outside.”
It’s possible that the team that can score the most in the paint will win this game. The Lobos like to attack the basket and they like to score with their post players. The Aztecs are similar.
“San Diego State will press and they are athletic,” said Sanchez. “But we are playing very, very well defensively and that’s first and foremost what we want to do.”
Said Lobo Kiana Keller: “Defense is basically our identity right now. It keeps us in games and when our offense isn’t going, we know our defense will pick us up and get our offense going.”
Brown paces UNM in scoring with a 14.0 average. Shumpert is at 10.8 with most of her points coming near the rim. The Lobos have two active guards in Bryce Owens (8.0 ppg) and Cherise Beynon (8.3 ppg). All other Lobos are at 5.6 points per game or lower.
However, UNM seems to have a knack out of getting big baskets from a lot of different hands.
“We have so many different rotations and we can go so deep on our bench,” said Brown. “We are on a rise right now and hopefully we’ll get to the very top right when the season is ending.”
The Lobos are knotted with Colorado State at 10-3 for first place in the Mountain West race. Fresno State is at 9-3 followed by Boise State at 8-4 and UNLV at 7-5. The Lobos move on to play the UNLV Rebels on Saturday.
“We can’t jump ahead and look at what UNLV is doing until we take care of business at San Diego State,” said Brown. “Every game is important at this point. We are at the top of the conference and people are going to be out to get us.
“We’re not worried about our environment (road game). It’s go out and play basketball like we know how to play – the Lobo way.”
Lately, the Lobos way has been a winning way.