Lobos begin WNIT at home against Denver
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| NEW MEXICO LOBOS 24-6 (14-4 MW) |
DENVER PIONEERS 17-13 (10-6 Summit) |
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Thursday, March 21 | 7 p.m. (MT) |
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Tipping Off
The University of New Mexico women’s basketball team is WNIT bound for the second-straight season after posting another 20-plus win campaign. It will be the Lobos’ 17th overall postseason appearance and their seventh in the WNIT.
Last year, the Lobos made the WNIT field for the first time since 2009-10 and made a run to the Third Round as they won games against Saint Mary’s and Rice before falling to TCU. All three games were played in Albuquerque and all-time, the Lobos have played 17 of their 18 WNIT games at home.
The first round opponent for the Lobos is the University of Denver out of the Summit League. The Pioneers have an overall record of 17-13 and were 10-6 in Summit League play to finish in a tie for third in the regular season league standings.
Statistically, the Pioneers have the ninth-best scoring offense in the country at 80.6 ppg. In terms of shooting percentages, the Pioneers are shooting .431 (850-of-1,974) overall from the floor, .392 (281-of-717) from three-point range and .742 (438-of-590) from the charity stripe. Their field goal percentage ranks third in the Summit League and their free throw percentage is fourth. Not shy about taking shots from range, the Pioneers rank third in DI in three-point FG percentage. The Pioneers also have five players averaging double figures on the season and are led by Madison Nelson at 16.0 ppg.
This will be just the second meeting all-time between the Lobos and Pioneers with the lone matchup coming back in Albuquerque in 1996. The Lobos won that game 55-38. The two teams also shared four common opponents this season with the Lobos going a combined 7-0 against them and the Pioneers 1-3.
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 |
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 30 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 six times this year. The first two instances were accomplished by Aisia Robertson while the last four 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 ranked 10th.
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 34th in DI, while her 2.2 blocks per game is also 34th 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 6th with 1,544 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 940. 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.