Season comes to an end in opening round of MW Tournament
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Battling until the very end, the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team had its 2019-20 season come to a close on Sunday afternoon as they dropped their opening game of the Mountain West Tournament to No. 8-seed Nevada by a score of 74-64.
In what was a physical game throughout the No. 9-seed Lobos (15-17) and Wolf Pack (15-15) matched each other blow-for-blow. For the game, there were eight tie scores and seven lead changes with most of those coming in the first three quarters.
The Lobos held a six-point lead through the first and one-point lead at the break. At the end of the third, Nevada was on top by a point.
Early in the fourth quarter saw the turning point as the teams traded three-pointers. The first three was knocked down by the Lobos’ Ahlise Hurst at the 8:43 mark and gave the Lobos a two-point lead, 57-55. On the Wolf Pack’s ensuing trip down the court, however, they answered with a three of their own and reclaimed the lead, 58-57, with 8:17 to go.
Trailing by five points with 2:52 left on the clock, the Lobos pulled to within a possession on a layup by Aisia Robertson, 67-64, but that would be the final points scored for the Lobos as the Wolf Pack closed out the game on a 7-0 run from there to finish with the 10-point victory.
Statistically, the Lobos had three players score in double figures and were led by Jaedyn De La Cerda’s 20 points. For De La Cerda, it was her seventh game with at least 20 points scored. Behind De La Cerda in scoring was Robertson as she had 11 points. The dynamic point guard who battled back from knee surgery at the end of last season finished her Lobo career with 654 points and 336 assists. Antonia Anderson rounded out double figure scoring with 10 points. She also hauled in 10 rebounds to post her third double-double of the season.
Off the bench, the Lobos got a major boost from Shaiquel McGruder as she scored six points, but also hauled in a career-high 17 rebounds. Her rebound total on Sunday was the most since Jaisa Nunn had 19 rebounds against San Diego State in last year’s opening round game of the MW Tournament.