ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — After falling behind 33-17 at the half, a comeback by The University of New Mexico women’s basketball team fell short on Wednesday night in a tough Mountain West contest at home against UNLV. The Lobos fell by a score of 61-52 despite junior Cherise Beynon tallying her ninth game scoring 20 points or more to lead three Lobos in double figures.
With the loss, UNM falls to 12-10 overall, 7-4 in the Mountain West while UNLV improves to 15-7 (6-4 MW) with the win.
“They (UNLV) set the tone in the first quarter and it was tough to recover from that,” head coach Mike Bradbury said. “However, I will give our kids credit, we battled back. We had a shot there with about two minutes to go where we got a wide-open three to take the lead but we missed it. We still had a chance to get back and win the game, we just came up a little too short.”
Beynon played all 40 minutes for UNM while leading both teams in scoring and adding nine rebounds. She was followed by senior Richelle van der Keijl who notched her sixth double-double of the season with 16 points and 12 rebounds and freshman Mykiel Burleson who also hit double figures, scoring 11 points on the night. The remainder of the Lobo squad combined for just five points.
UNLV got out to a fast start in the first quarter, taking a 6-2 advantage in the first three minutes and extending the lead to 13, 19-6, after a 10-0 UNLV run. Six points is the lowest total for the Lobos in the first quarter this season behind eight points which occurred on Jan. 11 at UNLV.
In the second quarter, the Lady Rebels came out with five straight points to make it 24-6 before Bradbury called a timeout. Beynon hit a 3-pointer after the break to cut the UNLV lead to 15 before adding a layup to make it a 13-point game. Another three by freshman Mykiel Burleson with 4:25 left on the clock brought UNM to within 10 but UNLV ended the quarter on a 6-0 run to make it a lofty 33-17 Lady Rebel lead at the half.
The Lobos kicked off the third quarter with another Burleson three to make it 33-20 before Beynon and senior Richelle van der Keijl combined for 21 points throughout the remainder of the frame for an outstanding comeback that included a 9-0 opening run to cut the UNLV lead to single digits, 33-26. The Lady Rebels stretched the lead back to 13 before the Lobos continued with an 11-2 run to close the quarter with just a four-point difference, 45-41.
Beynon hit a three in the fourth to make it a one-point game, 45-44 in front of a loud crowd of nearly 4,500 with 9:16 left to play. UNLV slowly gained a four-point advantage before van der Keijl tallied another layup in the paint to make it 52-50 with just less than three minutes left.
Bradbury called another timeout to craft a three-point play, but a missed shot from behind the arc allowed UNLV to get the rebound and make a three at the opposite end of the court to make it a five-point game with 1:40 left. The Lobos fought until the final seconds, sending UNLV to the foul line to stop the clock, but the effort fell short in the 61-52 final.
Overall the Lobos were outshot by a narrow margin, 32.8 percent to 32.2 percent, despite a significant difference early in the game (42.1-21.4 percent) while being outrebounded 46-37. UNM did work more in the paint, however, outscoring the Lady Rebels 26-16 and posting 16 points on the fast-break to just four for UNLV.
The Lobos return to action on Saturday, Feb. 4 when they travel to San Jose State for a 3 p.m. contest.