Lobos Open December with NMSU Saturday at 1 p.m.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The Lobos open up the month of December and the start of four home games in the next nine days with New Mexico State on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Saturday’s game will be a Cherry Out with fans encouraged to wear cherry, and Lobo spirit shakers will be handed out to the first 2,000 fans. In addition, lowriders will be on display outside of The Pit. Tickets are available at golobos.com/tickets.
UNM enters the game 5-2, 4-0 at home, following Tuesday’s 81-78 overtime win against Eastern Illinois, while NMSU is 4-2, 1-1 on the road, and has won its last four games.
Historically, the Lobos are 57-27 against the Aggies, 30-12 in Albuquerque. Further, UNM has won nine of the last 10 meetings and the last six games in Albuquerque. During that 10-game span, UNM has outscored NMSU 81.7-65.7 in points per game and in the six-game span, UNM has outscored NMSU 83.7-60.5 in points per game. Coach Mike Bradbury is 10-2 all-time against NMSU, 6-0 at home.
FOUR-FOR-FOUR DEAL
UNM had a season-high four players finish in double figures twice this season.
The first time came in the game against Texas A&M-Commerce, led by a career-high 22 from Nyah Wilson. Aniyah Augmon scored 16, Charlotte Kohl finished with 16 and Paula Reus added 11. The second time came in the game against Eastern Illinois behind a career-high 25 points from Paula Reus, 21 points for Nyah Wilson, 14 points from Vianè Cumber and 10 from Aniyah Augmon.
UNM has four players averaging double figures led by Wilson (15.7 ppg), Cumber (13.3 ppg), Augmon (12.7 ppg) and Reus (11.1).
HOT HANDS
Against Texas Southern, Vianè Cumber took over in the fourth quarter, scoring 13 of her game-high 22 points in the final 10 minutes, going 5-7 from the floor and 3-4 from three-point range.
The Texas A&M-Commerce game followed a similar storyline in that Nyah Wilson took over in the fourth quarter to score 15 of her career-high 22 points on 6-8 shooting. Wilson opened fourth with a driving layup and the Lobos continued to rely on the junior with Wilson making three consecutive layups as well as a three-pointer to tie the game at 63. Wilson ultimately scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter for the Lobos, with her final points starting a 6-0 run that gave UNM a 69-65 lead.
Against Eastern Illinois, Paula Reus finished with a career-high 25 points, 17 of which came in the third and fourth quarters. She scored 10 points in the fourth quarter on 4-5 shooting and two three-pointers. In the overtime period, Cumber scored seven points, including the go-ahead basket with 32 seconds remaining and two free throws with seven seconds on the clock.
CONSISTENT CONTRIBUTORS
Aniyah Augmon has scored in double figures in six games, including last four, while Nyah Wilson has scored in double figures in five games with three games scoring 20 or more points. Vianè Cumber has scored in double figures in 4 games with two games with 20-plus points.
BATTLE ON THE BOARDS
The Lobos have shown their ability to control the boards, outrebounding their opponents 291-276 (+15), outrebounding opponents in four games.
Charlotte Kohl leads the team with 56 rebounds (8.0 per game), with 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 56 rebounds, 26 are on the offensive end and her 3.71 offensive boards per game are the third most in the conference.
UNM outrebounded Texas Southern 49-36 (+13), Tarleton State 45-35 (+10), Texas A&M-Commerce 47-33 (+14) and Eastern Illinois (47-46).
The Lobos are ranked 63rd in the NCAA in rebounds per game (41.6), 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 152nd with an +2.1 rebounding margin. UNM is ranked 55th in defensive rebounds per game at 28.9.
40 x3
Three Lobos have 40 rebounds (5.7 per game) in Vianè Cumber, Aniyah Augmon and Paula Reus, for the second-most rebounds on the team.
PAINT POINTS
UNM outscored opponents in the paint in six games this season and by a 242-176 (+66) margin, with a +24 margin against Texas Southern (38-14), +8 margin at Pepperdine (34-26), a +10 margin against Tarleton State (34-24), a +22 margin against Texas A&M-Commerce (50-28), a +2 margin (32-30) against Georgia Tech and a +16 margin against Eastern Illinois (36-20). UNM has scored 242 of its 465 points (52.0%) in the paint thus far.
ABOUT NEW MEXICO STATE
The Aggies are 4-2, 1-1 on the road this season, and have won their last four games.
NMSU is averaging 61.7 points per game and is led in scoring by Molly Kaiser, who is averaging 15.5 points per game and is the only player averaging double figures having scored double figures in five games.
Sabou Gueye leads the Aggies on the boards with 37 rebounds, an average of 6.2 per game, with the Aggies holding a +3.5 rebounding margin over their opponents. As a defense, NMSU is allowing 53.7 points per game and overall, is outscoring its opponents 370-322.
Kaiser, Gueye and Ene Adams have started all six games, while Tylie Jones has started five (including the last four), Sianny Sanchez-Oliver has started the last five games, and Sylena Peterson and Loes Rozing have each started one game.