LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The University of New Mexico women’s basketball team started strong – and after falling behind – made a hard charge in the fourth quarter, but came up short and lost to UNLV 74-62 on Saturday at Cox Pavilion.
The Lobos (20-9 overall, 8-8 Mountain West) jumped out to a 17-6 lead over the first five minutes of the game – ignited by back-to-back 3-pointers by Tesha Buck in the opening minute.
But UNM was outscored 9-1 the rest of the first quarter to cut its lead to 18-15 heading into the second. UNLV (18-9, 13-3) went on to take a 34-24 lead before 3-pointers from Buck and Bryan helped cut the Lobos’ halftime deficit to 36-31.
The Lady Rebels opened the third quarter on a 16-2 run to push their lead to 52-33 and UNM trailed by as much as 25 points in the fourth quarter.
However, UNM didn’t go away as a Cherise Beynon jumper with 6:19 left ignited a 14-0 run capped by a Beynon steal and layup with 4:03 left to make it 68-57.
That’s as close as the Lobos got as UNLV held off UNM over the final four minutes.
“To our kids’ credit, they never gave up and continued to play hard,” UNM coach Mike Bradbury said. “We got the lead down to 11 and had some chances to get closer – but just missed some open shots.”
Jaisa Nunn paced UNM with 17 points and 12 rebounds – going 7-for-7 from the field. Tesha Buck had 16 points, four rebounds and three assists while Beynon had 14 points, eight rebounds and five assists.
Katie Powell led four UNLV players in double figures with 20 points to go along with eight rebounds and three steals.
UNM plays its home finale 7 p.m. Tuesday as the Lobos host Colorado State.
Lobos late run falls short in loss at UNLV
