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| NEW MEXICO LOBOS 20-4 (10-3 MW) |
UTAH STATE AGGIES 11-13 (6-7 MW) |
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Wednesday, February 20 | 7 p.m. |
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Tipping Off
After a two-game road swing, the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team is back at home inside Dreamstyle Arena – The Pit this Wednesday against Utah State. The Lobos will be looking to bounce back from a tough 77-70 loss on the road at Fresno State their last time out.
Playing at home will be a welcomed factor for the Lobos as they are currently 13-1 on their home court this season. With the success at home and overall, crowds have consistently grown with the last two home games drawing over 14,000 fans.
Wednesday night’s game with Utah State will be the second meeting between the two teams this season with the first coming in Logan at the end of January. In that game, the Lobos were able to come away with a hard-fought 68-64 win against the Aggies.
The Lobos will enter the game 20-4 overall and 10-3 in the Mountain West. The Aggies will enter with an 11-13 overall record and a 6-7 mark in conference play. Statistically, the Lobos have the second-highest scoring offense in the league at 75.6 ppg. The Aggies are eighth in that category at 61.2 ppg, but they have the third-best scoring defense at 59.3 ppg. The matchup to look at closely will be inside as two of the top-three scorers in the conference will be on display. The Lobos’ Jaisa Nunn is second at 16.9 ppg, while the Aggies’ Shannon Dufficy is third at 15.6 ppg.
Tripped Up Late at Fresno
The Lobos led for much of their most-recent game at Fresno State, including what was a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter. FSU staged a comeback, however, taking the lead with 1:23 remaining. The Bulldogs would go on to end the game on a 9-0 run to secure the win. Despite the loss, the Lobos remain alone in second place in the league standings at 10-3.
20-20 Vision
With their win against San Jose State, the Lobos have reached the 20-win mark for the second-straight season. It is the first consecutive 20-win campaigns for the program since 2007-08 – 2008-09. It is also the eighth time in the 11-year coaching career for Mike Bradbury that his team has won at least 20 games in a season.
#PackingThePit
Dreamstyle Arena – The Pit is one of the legendary venues for Division I college basketball in the country, not just for men’s but also for women’s. In the 20th year of the Mountain West, the UNM women’s basketball team has led the league and ranked in the Top-20 nationally in attendance each year. The 2018-19 season has been no different. Currently, the Lobos are the top drawing team in the league and rank 15th nationally at average of 5,179 fans a game. In their last two home games, the Lobos brought in a total of 14,384 fans. The first of those games saw 8,068 fans and was their highest attendance since 2015.
Lobos Loading up on MW Player of Week
Earlier this season, the Lobos had a stranglehold on Mountain West Player of the Week as three out of the first four weeks were Lobos that earned the award. Additionally, the awards came in succession beginning with Jaisa Nunn (11/19). Aisia Robertson (11/26) followed the next week and Ahlise Hurst (12/3) capped the three-week run. It was the second time in as many seasons that the Lobos had three-consecutive MW Player of the Week honors.
UNM did not receive another weekly honor the next seven weeks, but freshman Jayla Everett became the fourth Lobo to earn MW Player of the Week for the final week of January. A week after that,
Nunn repeated as league player of the week, giving the Lobos five this season.
Balanced Scoring
The Lobos have played 24 games this season and have shown that their offensive production can come from a number of different places on any given game. Thus far, the Lobos have had six different leading scorers. Two of those have been efforts off the bench by Jaedyn De La Cerda and Madi Washington. An even more impressive note on the balanced scoring is the fact that the Lobos have had the same leading scorer in consecutive games just four times this year. The first two instances were accomplished by Aisia Robertson while the last two have been done by Jaisa Nunn.
Assists by Aisia
In 24 games, redshirt junior Aisia Robertson has been an assist machine. With 168 total assists currently, Robertson has not had fewer than four dimes in a game, and against Oklahoma, Robertson
set a new single-game record with 16 assists. Her assists per game are currently fifth in NCAA DI while her total assists are also ranked fifth.
Block Party Hosted By McClure
Length and athleticism were projected to be a newfound strength of the 2018-19 Lobos and thus far, senior transfer Nike McClure has exemplified that on the court. In the season-opener against Texas State, McClure blocked six shots on her own as the Lobos would end the night with a new school-record 16. Against Oklahoma, McClure swatted nine shot attempts by the Sooners to set a new single-game high for herself as a Lobo. McClure’s 58 total blocked shots is currently 19th in DI, while her 2.4 blocks per game is 20th in the country. As a team, the Lobos are fourth in the country in blocked shots per game.
Nunn’s Climb Up the All-Time Scoring List
Senior center Jaisa Nunn became the 22nd player in school history to score 1,000-career points at the end of her junior season. She ended that year 19th on the all-time scoring list. In her senior season, Nunn has the chance to climb the ranks even higher. She is currently 7th with 1,433 points.
Cleaning the Glass
Already a 1,000-point career scorer and climbing up the all-time ranks at UNM, Jaisa Nunn is also climbing the all-time list for rebounding at UNM. The program record for the most rebounds in a career is 982 held by Carol Moreland. Nunn currently ranks 2nd with 875. Now that she has eclipsed 800 rebounds, Nunn is one of three players all-time with over 1,000-career points and 800-career rebounds.