New Mexico Lobos Women – At The Mountain West Tournament
Friday’s Championship: Boise State 66, New Mexico 60
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
The Lobos’ dream finish finally hit a bump and it was a big one. The New Mexico Lobos’ bid for the 2015 Mountain West Tournament title and the automatic NCAA bid that goes with it are heading to Boise, Idaho instead of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The Lobos lost 66-60 to Boise State Friday afternoon in the Mountain West title game played in the Las Vegas Thomas & Mack.
The Broncos controlled the scoreboard throughout the contest and held off a New Mexico rally down the stretch to claim the 2015 title.
“The only thing that could make me believe that it was done (over) was whenever the buzzer went off,” said UNM’s Antiesha Brown. “There’s no way there’s a point in the game that I believed we lost it. We’ve come back from far worse deficits.
“I didn’t think it was over until the last buzzer.”
Said Coach Yvonne Sanchez; “You know, you have to credit Boise State. Every run we made, they responded. Good teams do (respond).”
The Lobos got a solid one-two, inside-outside scoring punch from Brown (23 points) and Khadijah Shumpert (17 points), but there wasn’t enough help on the scoreboard for those two Lobos to carry their team to the title. Cherise Beynon and Bryce Owens combined to go 2-of-19 from the floor and the Lobos got only three field goals from their bench.
“Antiesha started out, I think she had two points in the first half. She got 21 in the second half,” said Coach Sanchez. “She tried to put the team on her back and will this team to win.
“That’s why she’s a senior. That’s why she’s a leader.”
Brown and Shumpert did a lot of damage for UNM at the free-throw line where Shumpert went 11-of-11 and Brown went 8-of-8. UNM went 25-of-28 from the stripe as a team – 89.3 percent. The Lobos did not shoot as well from the field and ended up 16-of-52 for 30.8 percent.
“I think Boise State did a terrific job of taking us out of our offense,” said Brown. “We weren’t making contact on screens. They just out-played us. They took us out of our rhythm. We just didn’t hit ‘em back.”
The Broncos shot 36.7 percent from the floor and went 8-of-22 from long range while the Lobos went 3-of-12 from 3-point range. The Lobos had 16 turnovers and Boise State had 20. The Broncos won the battle of the boards 39-to-31.
“I think they went hard and they went for the boards,” said UNM’s Shumpert of Boise’s 19 offensive boards. “That’s something we talked about as a team that we needed to do and we didn’t get done.”
Said Coach Yvonne Sanchez: “They got too many second chances. The two factors were that (offensive boards) and 8-of-22 from the three-point line. If you look at the rest of the stats, everything else is pretty even.
“We know what they’re running. They know what we’re running. We had some good looks, they didn’t go down. We had some layups that didn’t go down.”
Boise State was led by Yaiza Rodriguez with 18 points but her value as a ball handler in this contest probably matched her scoring in its impact on the game. Brooke Pahukoa had 16 points and Miquelle Askew had 12 points.
Boise State, only the second No. 4 seed to win the MW title, opened the second half with a 16-9 run to take a 45-31 lead.
UNM’s Brown cut the Broncos’ lead to single digits by scoring five consecutive points, converting a three-point play and later hitting two free throws with 6:59 left.
Boise State built its lead back to 12, with 5:17 left, but New Mexico used a 7-0 run to cut it to five with 3:20 remaining. The Broncos held off New Mexico’s late charge by hitting 7 of 9 free throws, including three of four by Rodriguez.
The Lobos are not expected to get at at-large NCAA bid due to the low rating of the Mountain West this season.
This was a tough regular-season title and a tough tourney title to let slip away from a program with one of the top facilities in the nation and one of the more loyal fan bases in women’s collegiate ball. The MW was rated No. 23 by RealTimeRPI.com behind conferences such as American East, Sun Belt, Colonial, Big West and Horizon.
Coach Sanchez said despite the likelihood that her Lobos would miss the NCAA playoffs she was happy with what she saw on the floor.
“In terms of their effort, there’s no question I think they left everything on the floor,” she said. “I told them in the locker room, I’ll live with the results if you do that. They never gave up. They never quit.”
It will be interesting to see what seed Boise State draws from the NCAA Selection Committee. In the NCAA RPI rankings, Boise State was 120 heading into the Mountain West Tournament.
The Broncos not only pulled the title away from UNM, but the Broncos won the rubber-match game. Boise State won 86-65 in Idaho and the Lobos won 63-50 in WisePies Arena.
Lobo Coach Craig Neal, whose men were dumped out of the MW tourney in the first round by Air Force, indicated he did not want his Lobos to play in any other postseason events. Sanchez wants to continue to showcase her Lobos.
“Hopefully, we’re not done yet,” she said. “There’s still maybe another tournament (WNIT) we can go win.”
MW ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Pahukoa (MVP) and Rodriguez of Boise State; Brown of New Mexico; Alex Sheedy of Fresno State; and Rebecca Woodberry of San Jose State.