Lobos take on Spartans at home
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| NEW MEXICO LOBOS 21-4 (11-3 MW) |
SAN JOSE STATE SPARTANS 4-21 (3-11 MW) |
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Wednesday, February 27 | 7 p.m. |
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Tipping Off
Two weeks remain in the regular season and the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team is currently tied for second place in the Mountain West standings at 11-3, one game back of league-leading Boise State. The Lobos have four more games before heading to Las Vegas for the MW Tournament with two being played at home and two on the road. The first of the remaining games is a home game against San Jose State this Wednesday night. It will be the second meeting this season between the two teams with the Lobos claiming the initial meeting by a score of 79-60 in San Jose.
The Lobos enter play with a 21-4 overall record and the aforementioned 11-3 mark in conference play. San Jose State enters play 4-21 overall and 3-11 in the MW. The Spartans are also on a bit of a roll as they have won two-straight games with a 78-70 road win at Colorado State and a 73-60 win at home against Air Force.
The Lobos currently are averaging 75.6 ppg to rank second in the league and have the second-best scoring margin as well at +12.2 ppg. Three of the Lobos starters are averaging double figures with Jaisa Nunn leading the way at 16.8 ppg. Her scoring average is second in the MW.
The Spartans are averaging 62.9 ppg to rank seventh in the league. No player is in double figures, but four are averaging at least 8.0 ppg.
Runaway 4th Quarter vs. Aggies
The first three quarters of the Lobos most-recent game against Utah State were closely played with neither team having a lead larger than seven points. That all changed in the fourth quarter, however, as the Lobos dominated the final period, out-scoring the Aggies 19-6 overall. Through the first seven minutes of the period, the Lobos out-scored the Aggies 17-2 to give UNM their largest lead of the game at 20 points, 72-52, with 2:50 left on the clock. The rest of the game, the Aggies were only able to trim the deficit down to 16 points before the Lobos ended with an 18-point margin of victory.
Bench Production
The Lobos have not had to rely too much on scoring off their bench this season as their four top scorers are all starters, but in their game against Utah State, bench scoring very well may have been key to the win. For the fourth time this season, the bench contributed over 30 points as reserved totaled 32 against the Aggies. A majority of that scoring came from Antonia Anderson and Jaedyn De La Cerda as the two totaled 27 points. De La Cerda was the offensive spark in the first half as she scored 11 of her 14 points. Anderson was a consistent scoring option with 13 for the game and eight points in the second half.
20-20 Vision
With their win against San Jose State on February 13, 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 16th nationally at average of 5,150 fans a game. During a two-game stretch against Fresno State and Utah State, 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 25 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 five times this year. The first two instances were accomplished by Aisia Robertson while the last three have been done by Jaisa Nunn.
Assists by Aisia
In 25 games, redshirt junior Aisia Robertson has been an assist machine. With 177 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 sixth.
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 60 total blocked shots is currently 27th in DI, while her 2.4 blocks per game is 23rd 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 1,448 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 878. 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.