Lobos Face Wolf Pack Saturday

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The Lobo women’s basketball team returns to the road to face Nevada in the only regular season matchup of the season on Saturday, Feb. 12 at 12:30 p.m. PT/ 1:30 p.m. MT.

The game will be streamed on the Mountain West Network.

One thing about this Lobo women’s basketball team is they don’t let a team beat them twice. This season, the Lobos (20-6, 11-2 MW) have responded after every loss with a win, with Wednesday’s game no exception. And an added trait with this year’s Lobo team, any given player can be the difference maker on any given night.

Against Air Force, it was LaTora Duff who traded the role of facilitator for scorer, finishing with a career-high 25 points with only one three-pointer in the tally. Jaedyn De La Cerda added 19 points, with De La Cerda leading the way the first two quarters with 13 points for New Mexico, while Duff took over in the final two quarters with 16 points. It is the 16th time this season that a player has scored 20- plus points in a game, the second time for Duff.

LaTascya Duff played all 40 minutes and finished with 10 points and Paula Reus scored 10 points in the final 20 minutes for the fourth double-digit scorer.

New Mexico continues to lead the MW in scoring in conference games at 77.8 points per game, as well as in field-goal percentage (.458), three-point field-goal percentage (.377), three-pointers per game (10.6), assists per game (17.2) and blocks per game (4.4).

UNM has a conference-high five Lobos averaging double figures, with Shaiquel McGruder leading with 14.9 points per game, De La Cerda at 14.2, Antonia Anderson at 13.9, LaTascya at 11.2 ppg, LaTora at 11.2, and Reus nearly there at 8.7.

Further, De La Cerda has reached double figures in 19 games, McGruder in 17 games, LaTora in 16 games, Anderson in 14, LaTascya in 13, and Reus in six games.

In conference games, McGruder has led the Lobos in scoring in six games, Anderson in four, LaTora in one and De La Cerda in one, with McGruder and De La Cerda tied for the team high in one.

As mentioned, Saturday’s game at Nevada will be the first meeting between the teams this season, with the Wolf Pack coming off of a 68-57 loss at San Diego State, but had won the two prior games.

Nevada enters the game 7-4 in conference with wins over Air Force (67-52), San Jose State (83-48), Utah State (65-54), San Diego State (58-46), Air Force (40-39), San Jose State (88-63) and Fresno State (66-57). Their losses have come to UNLV (78-75), Colorado State (66-55), Wyoming (62- 53) and San Diego State (68-57). Nevada is 2-3 in its last five games.

The Wolf Pack are averaging 64.3 points per game with opponents scoring 57.5 points per game in conference. Nevada leads the MW in scoring defense in MW games and is third in scoring margin (+6.7) as well as three-point field-goal defense (.291), and fourth in field-goal defense (.397). Kylie Jimenez leads the conference in assist/turnover ratio in league play at 4.7 with 52 assists to 11 turnovers.

In their 11 conference games, Da’ja Hamilton, Amaya West, Jimenez and Alyssa Jimenez have started all 11 games, with Lexie Givens starting in 10 and Nia Alexander in one. Givens started in their last game at San Diego State, where Givens led the Wolf Pack with 27 points on 9-for-11 shooting and two three-pointers to go with a team-high seven rebounds in the loss. K. Jimenez had a game-high three steals and both K. and A. Jimenez had four assists.

Hamilton (13.8 ppg) and Audrey Roden (10.5 ppg) are the two leading scorers in conference play, with Givens leading with 4.5 rebounds per game. Roden leads with eight blocks and Kylie Jimenez has a team-high 20 steals and 52 assists. Nevada is 5-1 at home in conference play, 10-3 on the season. The Lobos are 7-3 all[1]time in Reno, 14-5 all-time against Nevada and have won the last two games (both in Reno).