UNM Opens Regular Season on Road Monday at Southern Utah
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— After two exhibition wins to get acclimated to a new roster and get game reps, the regular season officially begins Monday for The University of New Mexico women’s basketball team, with the Lobos opening on the road at Southern Utah at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+.
This will be just the second time in head coach Mike Bradbury’s time at UNM opening on the road, the other being in the 2020-21 season in which the Lobos opened the season at Midwestern State. During Bradbury’s tenure at New Mexico, the Lobos are 6-0 in season openers.
UNM returns three starters from a season ago in LaTascya Duff, LaTora Duff and Shaiquel McGruder, and five additional role players in Paula Reus, Aniyah Augmon, Vianè Cumber, Mackenzie Curtis and Kath van Bennekom. In addition, the Lobos added three transfers in Amaya Brown, Nia Johnson and Hulda Joaquim, and four freshmen in Jaelyn Bates, Brooke Berry, Natalia Chavez and Hannah Robbins.
Monday’s game marks the start of a challenging non-conference schedule as New Mexico has three Power 5 programs scheduled in Arizona State, Arizona and Mississippi State, although the Lobos have the benefit of home court against the Arizona schools, as well as Houston and Old Dominion.
EXHIBIT A
The Lobos opened the 2022-23 season with an exhibition against West Texas A&M, with four Lobos finishing in double figures, led by a game-high 17 points for LaTascya Duff, as New Mexico won 84-75. LaTora Duff nearly tallied a double-double with 14 points and a game-high nine assists, while Paula Reus scored 15 points to go with a game-high eight rebounds and Shaiquel McGruder finished with 14 points to go with seven rebounds, three steals and two blocks.
Between the end of the second quarter and the start of the third quarter, the Lobos went on a 16-0 run (7-0 to close the second and 9-0 to start the third).
UNM came out firing out of halftime, making its first four shots and scoring the first nine points of the quarter to build a 48-40 lead, with the lead reaching its largest point of the game at 13 on an Amaya Brown layup with 6:01 on the clock that made it 57-44. Of note, at that juncture of the quarter, the Lobos had outscored the Lady Buffs 18-4 in the third.
EXHIBIT B
New Mexico’s second exhibition was drastically different as the Lobos were never tested against Fort Lewis in a 95-54 win.
The Lobos made their first four shots of the game and their first five three-point attempts. The threes were falling early and often for New Mexico, with the Lobos finishing with 14 in the game, with seven different players making at least one and five with multiple three-pointers. LaTascya Duff and LaTora Duff each made three, with LaTora going 3-for-3 and LaTascya 3-for-4 on the night.
Three Lobos finished in double figures, led by LaTora with 13, LaTascya with 12 and Viané Cumber, who had 10 points off of the bench with two made three-pointers. Shaiquel McGruder was a perfect 4-for-4 from the floor, finishing with nine points and Kath van Bennekom and Jaelyn Bates each contributed eight points.
UNM made seven three-pointers in the first 10 minutes, shooting 77.8% from behind the arc. Of the 11 made baskets, 10 of them were assisted, with Reus leading with four assists. In addition, UNM finished with 14 steals and five blocks with LaTascya finishing with four steals and Aniyah Augmon, van Bennekom and McGruder with two each.
PRESEASON EXPECTATIONS
The Lobo women’s basketball team was picked to finish second in the Mountain West predicted order of finish, with UNM also placing three on the preseason All-Mountain West team, as announced by the conference on Wednesday.
As a team, New Mexico received 264 points and two first-place votes, while Shaiquel McGruder was named to the All-Mountain West team, Amaya Brown was named Preseason Newcomer of the Year and Hannah Robbins was selected as the Preseason Freshman of the Year.
It is the second-straight season that the Lobos were picked to finish second in the preseason poll, with UNM finishing second in the conference last season, and the third time in head coach Mike Bradbury’s tenure.
Brown joins LaTascya Duff in earning the preseason newcomer accolade, with Duff earning the honor in 2020-21. An Albuquerque native, Brown returns home to play for the Lobos after spending the last three years at Florida State. During her time with the Seminoles, the redshirt-senior played in 44 games and recorded 55 rebounds, 37 assists, 17 steals and six blocks.
Robbins is the first Lobo to be named preseason freshman of the year since N’Dea Flye in 2017, and the fourth overall, joining Mykiel Burleson in 2016 and Jannon Otto in 2015. Out of Phoenix, Arizona and PHH Prep, the Lobo guard averaged 16.5 points, 7.4 rebounds, 3.1 steals and 1.1 blocks per game as a sophomore and 16 points, eight rebounds, three steals and two blocks per game her junior year.
KNOW YOUR OPPONENT
Southern Utah is coming off of an 18-12 season a year ago, although the Thunderbirds went 14-6 in the Big Sky and finished third in the final standings. The Thunderbirds went 10-4 at home last season.
However, this season, SUU is in the WAC and picked to finish sixth in the preseason poll. In addition, the Thunderbirds had two players named to the preseason All-WAC teams in Cherita Daugherty, who was named to the preseason second team and Tomekia Whitman named to the first team. Daugherty led the team in points and steals last season, scoring 317 points and was credited with a team-high 33 steals (1.1 per game). Whitman is a transfer from Idaho State, where she was named the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year.
Last year, SUU averaged 70.6 points per game while allowing 65.8 points per game and averaged 6.6 steals per game and 4.8 blocks per game. The Thunderbirds had four players average double figures, led by Darri Dotson (11.0), followed by Daugherty (10.6), Kinsley Barrington (10.6) and Daylani Ballena (10.0). Of the four, Ballena and Daugherty return. Lizzy Williamson returns as their lead blocker, finishing the season with 50, and as their top-returning rebounder, averaging 8.1 per game and had 236 on the season. As a team, SUU was 24th in the NCAA in blocked shots per game and 33rd in blocked shots (143). The Thunderbirds were also 24th in rebounding margin at 7.2 and 26th in rebounds per game (41.53).
Southern Utah shares two common opponents with UNM in Texas A&M-Commerce and New Mexico State.
Following Monday’s game, the Lobos host Houston on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 2 p.m. Tickets are still available at golobos.com/tickets. For those unable to attend, the game will be streamed on the Mountain West Network, with an option to follow on the radio and through live stats.