Lobos look to flip the script against Wyoming
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| NEW MEXICO LOBOS 14-2 (4-1 MW) |
WYOMING COWGIRLS 9-4 (2-2 MW) |
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Saturday, January 19 | 2 p.m. |
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Tipping Off
The University of New Mexico women’s basketball team is looking to keep their season going in a positive direction, but will have to reverse recent history that has not been in their favor to do so as
they travel to Laramie to take on Wyoming on Saturday.
Entering play, the Cowgirls have won six-straight against the Lobos dating back to 2015. Half of those victories came last year as Wyoming beat UNM 66-55 in Laramie, 63-62 in Albuquerque, and 69-66 in the Mountain West Tournament. The Lobos will enter with a 14-2 overall record and a 4-1 mark in conference play. UNM is also riding a two-game winning streak. The Cowgirls are currently 9-4 overall and 2-2 in league play. Wyoming is coming off a loss in their last action a week ago Saturday as they were edged out on the road at Utah State, 50-42. The Cowgirls have yet to win a true road game away from Laramie, but are 8-0 at home.
The Cowgirls currently average 72.8 ppg to rank fourth in the MW and have the third-best scoring defense at 59.3 ppg. With the top offense in terms of shooting percentage overall, the Cowgirls
are also tops in the league in 3PT shooting. Conversely, the Lobos have the best 3PT defense in the MW, the second-best scoring average at 75.9 ppg, and the fourth-best scoring defense at 60.4.
Both the Lobos and Cowgirls also have the top-two scoring margins going into the game.
Resilient Down the stretch
The Lobos led wire-to-wire against San Diego State in their most-recent game and also had a lead as large as 19 points in the first half. The Aztecs, however, did not roll over and roared all the way back to tie the game with 3:30 left in the fourth quarter. From that point on, the Lobos displayed resiliency that was spurred on by the home crowd and ended the game on an 8-0 run to secure the victory.
Bounceback Effort
Following their first loss in Mountain West play at UNLV, the UNM women’s basketball team did not dwell on that game and put forth a tremendous comeback effort at home against Colorado State this past Saturday. In the game against the Rams, the Lobos were able to get back to their winning ways thanks, in part, to success from long range. The Lobos would make their second-most three’s in a game this season as they knocked down 11. Leading the charge in the game was Madi Washington as she scored a team-high 15 points and made five three-pointers.
Balanced Scoring
The Lobos have played 16 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 once this year (Aisia Robertson vs. NMSU (23 pts), 12-1-18; UTEP (20 pts), 12-5-18).
Assists by Aisia
In 16 games, redshirt junior Aisia Robertson has been an assist machine. With 118 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 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 and is blocking shots at a high clip. 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 49 total blocked shots is currently fifth in DI, while her 3.1 blocks per game is seventh in the country. As a team, the Lobos are first 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 10th with 1,264 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 4th with 791. Once she reaches 800 rebounds, Nunn will be one of three players all-time with 1,000-career points and 800-career rebounds.
Back-2-Back-2-Back MW PoW
For the second time in as many seasons, the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team has had three-straight Mountain West Player of the Week honorees. Last season, the Lobos were the first to achieve such as feat since San Diego State did in 2008-09 as Cherise Beynon, Jaisa Nunn, and Tesha Buck claimed the first three weekly conference awards.
This year, Nunn started the run of MW Player of the Week honors as she had a monster double-double in UNM’s 72-65 win over Hartford. In that game, Nunn scored 32 points and hauled in 11 rebounds. A week later, Aisia Robertson matched that double-double and even added to it by posting a triple-double in the Lobos’ 89-84 double OT win at Houston. In that game, Robertson scored 28 points and had 11 rebounds and 11 assists.
Hurst Sets Freshman Scoring Record
In just her fifth collegiate game and making her second start as a Lobo, true freshman Ahlise Hurst etched her name in the UNM and Mountain West women’s basketball record books against Oklahoma has she set a new freshman record for points in a game with 39. The previous record was 35 points by Yvonne McKinnon against Adams State in 1982.
Hurst, who had been averaging 5.8 ppg heading into the contest, heated up quickly as she surpassed her previous single-game high in scoring in just the first quarter as she had 12 points. For the game Hurst’s 39 points came on 14-of-24 shooting overall and 9-of-17 from three-point range.
Her nine three’s are the second-most makes from long distance in a game in school history.
3-x-1
In UNM’s road game at Houston, redshirt junior point guard Aisia Robertson did something only three other Lobo women’s basketball players have done, and that’s post a triple-double in a game. It was the seventh overall in program history and the first in the career of Robertson. Former players Cherise Beynon (3 times), Carol Moreland (twice) and Jean Rostermundt account for the other six
Most-recently, Ahlise Hurst garnered the award as she averaged 25.0 ppg and buried 12 three-pointers in UNM’s home wins against Oklahoma and New Mexico State. In the game against the Sooners, Hurst exploded for 39 points to set a new UNM and MW record for most points scored in a game by a freshman.