FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The University of New Mexico women’s basketball had its opportunities to end its five-year losing streak at Moby Arena, but Colorado State drained a 3-pointer with 26 seconds remaining to break a 71-71 tie and the Lobos’ two 3-point attempts on its final possession were off the mark as they fell to the Rams 74-71 on Saturday.
The Lobos (16-6 overall, 4-5 Mountain West) were held scoreless over the final 3:24 of overtime as UNM missed its final five shots of the game – including the two game-tying 3-point attempts in the last eight seconds.
UNM jumped out to a 71-67 lead in the extra period as Jaisa Nunn and Tesha Buck each scored in the paint on the Lobos’ first two possessions of overtime.
Colorado State (14-7, 6-4) answered at the three-minute mark as Veronika Mirkovic hit a mid-range jumper to cut the UNM lead to two points. Each team went scoreless for the next two minutes before Grace Colaivalu used a spin move to get free and tie the game, 71-71.
UNM’s Mykiel Burleson drove the ball to the basket on the Lobos’ next possesion, but her shot just rimmed out with 49 seconds left and Colorado State had a chance for the lead.
The Rams moved the ball around before Colaivalu drove into the paint and caused the defense to collapse as she passed it to Hannah Tvrdy who drained a 3-pointer with 26 seconds left to take a 74-71 lead.
UNM’s Buck missed a contested 3-pointer with 10 seconds left, but Nunn grabbed the rebound and the ball eventually found its way to Lapeyrolerie whose shot looked on target, but came up just short as the buzzer sounded.
The Lobos played the extra five minutes without leading scorer Cherise Beynon, who fouled out with 50 seconds remaining in regulation after scoring a game-high 30 points. Colorado State had a 67-65 lead at that point, but the Lobos took the game to overtime when Nunn grabbed an offensive rebound after a miss on a potential game-winning 3-pointer with less than five seconds remaining and scored with four seconds left.
4Q | AND WE’RE TIED! Nunn with the putback to tie the game 67-67 with 2.2 seconds left. #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/AoDBSI631F
— Lobo Women’s Basketball (@UNMLoboWBB) January 27, 2018
It was a closely contested game throughout with neither team leading by more than eight points – which was the Lobos as they led 42-34 with 6:34 left in the third quarter, but eventually trailed 50-48 heading into the fourth quarter.
To go along with Beynon’s 30 points and season-high 13 rebounds, Nunn finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds for her 11th double-double of the season while N’Dea Flye had 12 points and five rebounds.
4Q | BIG 3! Beynon drains a 3-pointer to give the Lobos a 65-64 lead over Colorado State with 59.9 seconds remaining. Ram timeout. #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/02xXDjy6z6
— Lobo Women’s Basketball (@UNMLoboWBB) January 27, 2018
Colorado State had four players in double figures, led by Tvrdy’s 16 points.
The Lobos shot 33.3 percent from the field (25-for-75), including 6-for-25 (24 percent) from 3-point range. UNM did go 15-for-18 from the free-throw line. Colorado State finished the game shooting 42.9 percent from the field (30-for-70), including 9-for-24 from beyond the arc (though the Rams did go 5-for-9 from the free-throw line).
UNM outrebounded the Rams 48-41, including grabbing 15 offensive rebounds (Colorado State had six offensive rebounds) – leading the Lobos to 14 second-chance points to Colorado State’s four.
The Lobos return to action 7 p.m. Wednesday when they host Utah State at Dreamstyle Arena.