Marquee matchup in Fresno
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| NEW MEXICO LOBOS 20-3 (10-2 MW) |
FRESNO STATE BULLDOGS 15-8 (8-4 MW) |
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Saturday, February 15 | 3 p.m. (MT) |
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Tipping Off
The second game of a two-game California road swing is on tap this Saturday for the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team and it is a big game for both the Lobos and their opponent, Fresno State. The Lobos are currently 10-2 in league play and are one game back of league-leading Boise State. The Bulldogs are 8-4 in the Mountain West and in fourth-place after losing their most-recent game to Boise State on Wednesday.
This will be the second meeting of the season between the Lobos and Bulldogs with the first game being played in Albuquerque. In that game, UNM came away with an 82-73 win in front of the largest home crowd of the season for the Lobos with over 8,000 fans in attendance.
That great crowd helped the Lobos jump out to an early lead and later helped them fend off a furious Bulldog rally.
Saturday’s game will once again likely be an offensive display on both sides as the Lobos and Bulldogs are two of the top-three scoring teams in the league at 75.9 ppg and 71.3 ppg, respectively. The two teams also feature the top-two individual scorers in the conference in Candice White and Jaisa Nunn. White is currently pacing the MW at 19.0 ppg while Nunn is second at 16.7 ppg
Cali Weekend Swing Off To Solid Start
The most-recent game for the Lobos featured a pair of teams on the opposite ends of the conference standings as UNM remains in striking distance of first place while their opponents, San Jose State is mired at the bottom. Early on in the game, that disparity did not exactly play out as one would expect as the Spartans held a 13-11 lead with 2:45 left in the first quarter.
The Lobos would go on to close out the quarter on a 10-1 run and never looked back. UNM would go on to lead by as many as 30 points before ending with a comfortable 19-point victory of San Jose State. It was the second-largest margin of victory for the Lobos in conference play this season and the largest since their 21-point win over Air Force in their conference opener.
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.
Efficient Attack vs. Nevada
One game after having their lowest shooting percentage of the season on the road at San Diego State, the Lobos completely turned that around at home against Nevada with their best shooting percentage performance.
In the game at SDSU, the Lobos 32% (22-of-69). In the game against Nevada, the Lobos shot 59% overall from the floor (31-of-53). In the first half alone against the Wolfpack, UNM virtually did not miss as they shot 73% overall (19-of-26).
#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 11th 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 23 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 three times this year. The first two instances were accomplished by Aisia Robertson while the most-recent was done by Jaisa Nunn.
Assists by Aisia
In 23 games, redshirt junior Aisia Robertson has been an assist machine. With 163 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 56 total blocked shots is currently 18th in DI, while her 2.4 blocks per game is also 18th in the country. As a team, the Lobos are seventh 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 9th with 1,411 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 859. 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.