LAS VEGAS, Nev. – University of New Mexico women’s basketball coach Yvonne Sanchez, whose team turned around a 1-7 start with a 17-4 finish, on Monday earned Mountain West Coach of the Year honors.
She was one of three Lobos honored by the conference, which announced its postseason awards on the opening day of the Mountain West Tournament.
Sanchez, who is completing her fourth year, is the second Coach of the Year award winner, t Don Flanagan, who won the award 10 years ago in 2004-05.
The Lobos, who went 11-19 and 6-12 in the Mountain West in 2013-14, have an 18-11 overall mark heading into Tuesday’s MW Tournament quarterfinal. They finished with a school-record 14 conference victories.
At 14-4 in the MW regular season, UNM finished second, one game behind two-time champion Colorado State. Before the season began, the Rams were the preseason pick to win the league championship.
The Lobos? They were picked to finish ninth in the 11-team league.
Other award winners Monday included senior Antiesha Brown earning first-team All-MW honors, the first Lobo to earn first-team distinction since Caroline Durbin in 2011-12. Brown also was named to the MW All-Defensive Team, becoming the first Lobo since Porche Torrance to make that team.
Brown was an honorable-mention All-MW in 2013-14 and was the MW Sixth Player of the Year in 2012-13.
And Freshman Cherise Beynon earned Mountain West All-Freshman Team honors, becoming the first Lobo ever to make an all-freshman team (in the two years that the MW began naming an All-Freshman Team). Beynon is the first to make an a newcomer-type award since Dionne Marsh in 2004-05.
The Lobos, the No. 2 seed in the Mountain West Tournament, will play in Tuesday’s 7 p.m. quarterfinals against the winner of the No. 7-seed San Diego State-No. 10-seed Nevada game tonight.