ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.– The New Mexico women’s basketball team hosts Prairie View A&M on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at The Pit, the fifth-straight home game for the Lobos.
Tuesday marks High School Night with all teachers and staff able to attend for $2 a ticket and all high school students able to enter for free by requesting a ticket in advance at golobos.com/highschoolnight. For those unable to attend, the game will be streamed on the Mountain West Network, with the radio call by J.J. Buck available on 95.9 FM/ 610 AM.
The Lobos enter the game 2-0 on the season after wins over Lamar (71-54) and Northern New Mexico (96-40).
While the season is still young, the Lobos have held an opponent to single digits in a quarter three times already. In Friday’s game against Northern New Mexico, UNM held the Lady Eagles to seven points in both the second and fourth quarters, while holding them under 15 points in each quarter. The Lobos held Northern New Mexico to 18.2% in the fourth quarter on 2-11 shooting and 23.1% in the second quarter on 3-13 shooting. As a whole, NNMC shot just 27.6% in the game with 16 made baskets on 58 attempts and 17.4% from three with four makes on 23 attempts.
Against Lamar, the Lobos shut the Cardinals down defensively in the third quarter, allowing just nine points in the quarter for the 53-37 (16 points) lead. UNM held Lamar to 2-of-11 shooting from the floor (18.2%) and 1-of-7 (14.3%) from three.
On the other end of the floor, UNM had balanced scoring in its first two games of the season with four double-digit scorers in each game.
UNM finished with four scorers in double figures in the season opener against Lamar, led by Antonia Anderson’s game-high 16 points, followed by Jaedyn De La Cerda and Shaiquel McGruder at 15 each and LaTora Duff with 10. Duff was one assist shy of a double-double, tying her career high with nine assists, and nearly matching Lamar’s team total in assists as the Cardinals had 10 in the game. McGruder was a perfect 7-for-7 from the field, one of two Lobos to go perfect from the floor. As a team, the Lobos had balanced scoring, scoring 18 points in three of the four quarters and 17 points in the first.
Freshman Mackenzie Curtis and senior McGruder each had 12 points in the win over Northern New Mexico to join Vianè Cumber’s game-high 17. Nevaeh Parkinson recorded her first collegiate double-double with 11 points and a game-high 11 rebounds, grabbing five offensive boards and six defensive, while also credited for two steals and an assist.
Four Lobos are currently averaging 10-plus points per game in McGruder (13.5), Curtis (12.0), De La Cerda (11.5) and Anderson (11.5) with Cumber narrowly outside at 9.5.
Part of UNM’s success has come as a result of Duff at the point, as the Lobo facilitator is averaging 7.0 assists per game, with just one turnover in 52 minutes of court time for a 14.0 assists to turnover ratio, with her assist/turnover ratio of 14.0 leading the nation.
Speaking of Cumber, it took all of one week of collegiate play for Cumber to earn her first award, as the guard earned the inaugural MW Freshman of the Week on Monday, Nov. 15. On the week, Cumber averaged 9.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game.
On the other side of the court, Prairie View A&M enters Tuesday’s game 1-1 on the season, winning its season opener against Paul Quinn College, 83-70, and losing on the road to Nebraska, 102-47.
Kirdis Clark led the Panthers to the win with 23 points on 8-for-17 shooting, with Diana Rosenthal nearly matching the production with 19 points on 7-for-13 shooting and 3-for-8 from behind the arc. Gerlyn Smith was the top rebounder with seven boards (one offensive) and Emely Rosario was the main distributor with six assists. The Panthers had nine blocks in the game, with Smith and Jessica Soders each accounting for three, and had 21 steals with Clark, Rosenthal and Barbara Benson recording four apiece.
Smith led Prairie View against the Huskers with 13 points, with Rosenthal again finishing as the second-leading scorer with 12 points on four three-pointers. The Panthers shot just 23.8% from the floor (19-80) and 7-for-19 from three-point range in the loss.
The Panthers finished last season 3-13 overall and 2-11 in conference play and return top three scorers in Kennedy Paul (12.4 ppg), Rosental (12.3 ppg) and Kennedi Heard (10.3 ppg) but did lose their top rebounder in Tiffany Tullis (5.6 rpg). Rosenthal led the team in steals (35) and assists (44 last season).
Of note, Prairie View A&M has two other common opponents with the Lobos in Lamar and Grambling State.