(2) Lobos open MW Tournament vs. (7) SDSU
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| NEW MEXICO LOBOS 24-5 (14-4 MW) |
SAN DIEGO STATE AZTECS 13-17 (7-11 MW) |
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Monday, March 11 | 7 p.m. (MT) |
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Tipping Off
The 2018-19 regular season has come to an end for the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team and it was one of the most successful in program history. Finishing the regular season with a 24-5 overall record, the Lobos have already posted the third-most wins in a season and have the second-best winning percentage all-time at .828. In terms of conference play, the Lobos posted a 14-4 record and secured the No. 2-seed in the upcoming MW Tournament. The 14 league wins tie the program record set back in 2014-15. The No. 2-seed is the highest seed entering the conference tournament since that 2014-15 season.
As the No. 2-seed, the Lobos had the luxury of having an opening round bye and awaited the winner of No. 7-seed San Diego State and No. 10 Air Force to determine their first opponent in the tournament. SDSU won the game against Air Force and will be the Lobos’ first opponent. The Lobos are 1-1 against Aztecs with each team being victorious on their home court. In Albuquerque, the Lobos beat the Aztecs 70-62 while San Diego State won 61-59 at home.
Securing No. 2-Seed
After coming up just short in their pursuit of a regular season championship following a road loss at Boise State, the Lobos bounced back and took care of business in securing the No. 2-seed in the
upcoming MW Tournament. The Lobos did so by beating Wyoming 57- 50. Both the Lobos and Cowgirls entered that game 13-4 in conference play were playing for the No. 2-seed.
Lobos Rack Up All-MW & …of The Year
The Mountain West released its annual postseason all-conference and …of the Year awards on Sunday and the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team was very well represented with
four different players receiving some kind of plaudit. Three of the top individual awards went UNM as the Lobos took home Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year and Freshman of the Year honors.
| MW Player of the Year | MW Newcomer of the Year | MW Freshman of the Year | All-MW |
| Jaisa Nunn | Aisia Robertson | Jayla Everett | Jaisa Nunn Aisia Robertson |
| MW Honorable Mention | MW All-Defensive Team | MW All-Freshman Team | |
| Jayla Everett | Aisia Robertson Nike McClure |
Jayla Everett |
Battle in Boise
An unbalanced Mountain West schedule set the stage for an early March matchup between New Mexico and Boise State. The lone scheduled meeting in the 2018-19 regular season between the Lobos and Broncos could not have had higher stakes with the regular season title hanging in the balance. A win for the Broncos gave them the crown out-right while the Lobos needed a win to keep their chances alive heading into the final regular season game.
As it played out, The Battle in Boise lived up to its billing as the game was a tight back-and-forth affair throughout. With five lead changes and four tie scores, the largest lead for either team was just single digits. The Broncos would emerge with a 70-66 win on their home court to clinch the regular season crown.
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 13th nationally at average of 5,375 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. In their regular season finale, the Lobos set a new single-game high with 8,152.
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 29 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 corer 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 29 games, redshirt junior Aisia Robertson has been an assist machine. With 192 total assists currently, Robertson has not had fewer than four dimes all but one time this season, and against Oklahoma, Robertson set a new single-game record with 16 assists. Her assists per game are currently seventh in NCAA DI while her total assists are also ranked seventh.
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 65 total blocked shots is currently 30th in DI, while her 2.3 blocks per game is also 30th in the country. As a team, the Lobos are fifth 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 1,520 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 921. Now that she has eclipsed 900 rebounds, Nunn is the only Lobo in program history and just the 6th in MW history as well to have over 1,000 career points and over 900 career rebounds.