UNM Returns to The Pit Wednesday Against Aggies
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—The Lobos return to The Pit on Wednesday night to host Utah State with tip set for 7 p.m.
Wednesday will be the only conference meeting this season between the two teams with the Lobos entering the game 10-5, 1-1 in the Mountain West and the Aggies 3-11, 0-3 in the Mountain West.
UNM has won the last 14 games and 16 of the last 17 in the series, while also winning the last seven games in Albuquerque, but both teams enter with completely different rosters. The Aggies have 12 newcomers on their roster and return no starters from a year ago, while the Lobos have a new starting lineup from a year ago with only one returner who started more than half of last year’s games.
Overall, UNM leads the series 26-6 and 12-2 in Albuquerque.
FOUR-FOR-FOUR DEAL
UNM has had a season-high four players finish in double figures five times this season. Paula Reus and Aniyah Augmon were involved in all five instances, with Nyah Wilson in four of the games, Charlotte Kohl in three, Vianè Cumber in two and Mackenzie Curtis involved in one game.
UNM also has four players averaging double figures led by Reus and Wilson (tied at 12.4 ppg) and Cumber and Augmon (tied at 11.3 ppg).
CONSISTENT CONTRIBUTORS
Aniyah Augmon and Paula Reus have scored in double figures in a team-high 10 games, while Nyah Wilson has scored in double figures in nine games with four games scoring 20 or more points. Reus has scored in double figures in the last five and eight of the last nine. Charlotte Kohl has scored in double figures five times and has three double-doubles on the season. Vianè Cumber has scored in double figures in six games with two games with 20-plus points.
WILSON’S WORLD
Nyah Wilson has made quite the first impression in her first season as a Lobo, finishing in double figures in nine games, with 20 or more points in four games, and setting several career highs.
In her first true game as a Lobo, Wilson finished with 20 points, four rebounds, three assists and a steal. The Dallas, Texas, native went 5-8 from the floor, a perfect 4-4 from behind the arc and nearly perfect at the free-throw line going 6-7. Her 20 points set a then-career high, as did her five made field goals, her four made three-pointers and four attempts.
She later bested that with 22 points on nine made field goals against Texas A&M-Commerce, scoring 15 points in the fourth quarter.
She added 16 points against Tarleton, setting a career high in rebounds (nine), made free throws (eight) and minutes played (33). She improved her career best in free throws, going 9-10 in the game against Georgia Tech and had a career-high 11 rebounds against Southern Utah, the first time with double-digit rebounds in her career.
In her first MW game at Nevada, Wilson went 9-12 at the free-throw line and finished with a team-high 21 points to go with eight rebounds, three assists and her first career block. In the game against Boise State, Wilson went 3-4 from three-point range and tied for the team high with two steals, her third time in the last four games with two steals.
On the season, she’s scored 186 points (12.4 ppg) and is tied for the team high in points and tied for second in steals with 14. She is tied for 11th in the MW in points per game and seventh in free-throw percentage (.764). Wilson is ranked 65th in the NCAA in free throws (55) and 80th in free throw attempts (72) and has made the second-most free throws and taken the second-most free throws amongst MW players.
PAULA FINDING HER STRIDE
Paula Reus has found her stride of late, scoring in double figures in the last five games and eight of the last nine. She set her career high in points with 25 against Eastern Illinois, making a season-high four three-pointers.
Reus has scored in double digits 10 times this season and 31 times in her three years. UNM is 8-2 this season and 23-8 all-time when Reus reaches double figures.
She has been close to a double-double several times with four games of eight rebounds and 15 points and nine rebounds in the WNMU game, has had at least one steal in six of the last seven games with two games with two steals in that span, and has been a facilitator with five assists in two games.
Reus is tied for the team high in points (186, 12.4 ppg) but leads in made field goals (72), and is second in three-pointers (21), assists (32, 2.1 apg), blocks (6, 0.4 bpg), steals (14, 0.9 spg) and rebounds (92, 6.1 rpg).
HOME COURT ADVANTAGE
The Pit has proven to be a home court advantage for the Lobos of late. UNM has gone 41-6 (.872) over the last four years: 8-2 this season, 14-3 last season and 17-1 the year prior, while also going 2-0 in the only two home games in 2020-21.
Coach Mike Bradbury is 96-26 in The Pit in his eight years at UNM.
Entering the season, UNM has gone 119-43 (.735) in The Pit with seven seasons with 10-plus home wins and three seasons with 15-plus wins in the last 10 years.
In the past seven years under Bradbury, the Lobos have led the Mountain West in attendance in six (with the lone year the COVID season when UNM had two home games without any fans in attendance).
UNM finished 18th in the NCAA last season in attendance and has finished in the top 20 six times in the last seven years (exception was 2020-21 COVID season). So far this season, UNM is 13th in the NCAA in attendance and leads the Mountain West.
ABOUT UTAH STATE
The Aggies enter the game 3-11 on the season, 0-3 in MW with losses to UNLV (107-68), Wyoming (54-48) and San José State (69-54).
Utah State is led in scoring by Cheyenne Stubbs, who has led the team in scoring 11 times and is averaging 15.2 points per game. Stubbs also leads with 24 steals, 22 three-pointers, 51 free throws and 33 assists. Skye Miller leads with 63 rebounds, 4.5 per game.
Stubbs and Ivory Finley have started all 14 games with Tiairra Hill-Brown starting in 12 games and Miller in 13.
UP NEXT: Following Wednesday’s game, the Lobos head to Colorado State to face the Rams on Jan. 13 at 1 p.m. MT. The next home game will be Jan. 17 against Wyoming with a 7 p.m. start time.