Lobos Begin Cancun Challenge Thursday with Montana State
CANCUN, Mexico— The Lobos have arrived in Cancun ahead of the Cancun Challenge with the tournament set to begin on Thursday against Montana State. Thursday’s game will be on FloHoops and the first of two games the Lobos will play in the tournament, with the other against Georgia Tech on Friday.
UNM enters the game 4-0 and has been off since last Wednesday, whereas the Bobcats are 2-2 and have won their last two games with the last being on Sunday. Historically, the Lobos are 4-1 (1-0 at neutral sites) against the Bobcats and have won the last three meetings. However, the last time the two teams met was back in 1998, a 56-39 win at home.
QUICK HITS BY THE NUMBERS
• 4-0 start for 3rd time in last 5 years
• Outscoring opponents 49-28 in fast-break points
• Outscoring opponents in the 1st (71-48), 2nd (69-59) & 4th (73-69) quarters and 272-236 overall
• Trailed at the end of a quarter only 2 times this season
• Outscoring opponents 156-92 in paint
• +9.0 scoring margin, +8.3 rebounding margin
FOUR-FOR-FOUR DEAL
UNM had a season-high four players finish in double figures in the last game, led by a career-high 22 from Nyah Wilson. Aniyah Augmon scored 16, Charlotte Kohl finished with 16 and Paula Reus added 11.
The Lobos also have four averaging double figures on the season with Wilson at 16.5 ppg, Viané Cumber at 13.0, Augmon at 12.8 and Reus at 10.0. Wilson and Augmon have scored double digits three times (twice with 20 or more points for Wilson), while Cumber and Reus have scored in double digits twice which includes the last two games for Reus.
THREE’S COMPANY
The Lobos have had three players score in double figures in two games, with Nyah Wilson and Viané Cumber reaching double figures in both games, and Paula Reus and Aniyah Augmon once.
ON ANY GIVEN NIGHT
The Lobos have been led in scoring by four different players and in rebounds by three different players in the four games this season.
Vianè Cumber (22 points) and Charlotte Kohl (nine rebounds) led in the season opener, Aniyah Augmon (16 points and nine rebounds) led at Pepperdine and Paula Reus and Nyah Wilson (16 points each) and Wilson (nine rebounds) led against Tarleton State. In the last game, Wilson led on her own with 22 points, tying Cumber for the single-game high this season, and Kohl led in rebounds for the second time this season with a career-high 20 rebounds.
BATTLE ON THE BOARDS
While the sample size is small, the Lobos have shown their ability to control the boards, outrebounding their opponents 180-147 (+33).
Charlotte Kohl leads the team with 40 rebounds (10.0 per game) and Paula Reus averaging 7.0 rpg after collecting a season-high eight boards last game. Kohl had a 20-rebound performance, an 18-rebound outing in the final exhibition against Adams State, had a team-high eight rebounds in the first exhibition and grabbed nine against Texas Southern to start the season. Of her 40 rebounds, 19 are on the offensive end and the second most in the conference. She is ranked 15th in the NCAA in offensive rebounds per game (4.8) and 38th in rebounds per game.
UNM outrebounded Texas Southern 49-36 (+13), Tarleton State 45-35 (+10), Texas A&M-Commerce 47-33 (+14), Adams State 56-25 (+31) and Eastern New Mexico 48-26 (+22).
The Lobos are ranked 35th in the NCAA in rebounds per game (45.0), an improvement from last season in which the Lobos finished 177th in the NCAA in rebounds per game with 36.5. In addition, the Lobos have made an improvement in rebounding margin, finishing last season 246th at -2.0, compared to this season where the Lobos are currently ranked 59th with an +8.2 rebounding margin.
PAINT POINTS
UNM outscored opponents in the paint in all four games this season, with a +24 margin against Texas Southern (38-14), +8 margin at Pepperdine (34-26), a +10 margin against Tarleton State (34-24) and a +22 margin against Texas A&M-Commerce (50-28). UNM has scored 156 of its 272 points (57.4%) in the paint thus far.
GET AHEAD, STAY AHEAD
So far this season, the Lobos have led for:
•37:53 and led after each quarter against Texas Southern
•36:30 and never trailed at Pepperdine
•39:21 and never trailed against Tarleton State
UNM is outscoring opponents 71-48 (+23) in the first quarter and 140-107 (+33) through the first two quarters. The Lobos have held the lead heading into the fourth quarter in three of four games, outscoring opponents 199-167 (+32) through three quarters. In the fourth quarter, UNM is outscoring opponents 73-69.
CALL ON KOHL
Charlotte Kohl finished with a dominating stat line of a career-high 14 points, career-high 20 rebounds (10 offensive), career-high four blocks and an assist for her first double-double of the season and second of her career against Texas A&M-Commerce.
Kohl registered the double-double by halftime and became the first Lobo to have 20 rebounds in a game since Richelle van der Keijl had 20 against New Mexico State exactly seven years prior on Nov. 15, 2016. Prior to that, the last Lobo to collect 20 rebounds was Amanda Adamson against Texas Tech on Dec. 13, 2008.
Of note, five of her 10 offensive rebounds translated to 11 of UNM’s 16 second-chance points, eight of which were scored by Kohl and the three-pointer she had the assist on. Her 20 rebounds in a game are the most by a MW player this season.
She was named the Mountain West Player of the Week on Nov. 20 for the first weekly conference award in her collegiate career.
ABOUT MONTANA STATE
The Bobcats are 2-2 on the season having won their last two games against San José State (62-49) and North Dakota (60-53). Montana State is averaging 61.0 points per game, led by two in double figures in Katelynn Limardo (13.3 ppg) and Lexi Deden (11.5 ppg).
However, the Bobcats have not scored more than 62 points this season, outscoring opponents 68-57 in the first quarter, but then being outscored in the second (54-47) and third (77-72) with the fourth quarter a tie at 57 scored and allowed.
They average 22.5 three-point attempts a game, making 6.0 and shooting 26.7% from distance. The Bobcats are effective from the free-throw line, attempting an average of 18 a game and shooting 80.6% from the line.
Montana State has recorded seven or more steals in all four of its games with 13 in the first game against BYU and eight in each of the last two games. The Bobcats have also recorded multiple blocks every game this season with five against San José State.
Montana State has started the same lineup in all four games in Limardo, Deden, Marah Dykstra, Madison Hall and Natalie Picton.