Lobos Travel to Texas Tech Tuesday
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The Lobos head on the road for the first time this season to face Texas Tech on Tuesday night at 5 p.m. MT/ 6 p.m. CT. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ with live stats available.
UNM enters the game 1-1 after defeating Morehead State on Thursday night behind two double-doubles, Viané Cumber scoring a game-high 23 points and brought down a game-high 12 rebounds and Hulda Joaquim’s career-high 12 points to go with 10 rebounds for her first double-double. Cumber accounted for seven of UNM’s 11 three-pointers in the game. Defensively, the Lobos held the Eagles to single digits in both the second (eight) and third (seven) quarters and recorded 10 blocks and eight steals.
The Lobos have three players averaging double figures in Cumber (18.5 ppg), Destinee Hooks (13.5 ppg) and Alyssa Hargrove (11.5 ppg) and are averaging 72.0 ppg while allowing 68.0 ppg. For Texas Tech, the Lady Raiders are 2-0 on the season with wins over Incarnate Word (78-48) and Houston Christian (63-40) and averaging 70.5 points per game and allowing 44.0 points per game.
SERIES HISTORY
UNM is 4-16 all-time against Texas Tech, 0-9 in games played in Lubbock. The Lobos last played Texas Tech in 2021, a 82-75 loss on Nov. 28 at the Van Chancellor Classic in Katy, Texas.
UNM’s last win against Texas Tech was Dec. 6, 2017, a 90-56 win at home and the last time the Lobos played in Lubbock was Nov. 20, 2016, a 69-58 loss.
BLOCK IT UP
The Lobos finished with 10 blocks in Thursday’s game against Morehead State, the most since 2021, when UNM had 11 against Houston Baptist on Nov. 23. Seven different Lobos had at least one block with Hulda Joaquim, Destinee Hooks and Alyssa Hargrove leading with two apiece. Lara Langermann recorded her first career block, with Lydie Mwamba, Amhyia Moreland and Reza Po all contributing one.
UNM has 15 blocks between the two games with Joaquim leading with three and Hooks, Hargrove, Po and Moreland all having two.
STARTING STRONG, NEED TO FINISH STRONG
UNM has entered the fourth quarter in both games with the lead, outscoring its opponents 46-34 in the first quarter and 33-23 in the second quarter (79-57 in the first 20 minutes), but that margin narrows to 26-22 in the third quarter and is being outscored 57-39 in the fourth.
The Lobos have led for the majority of the game in both games, leading 34:12 and by as many as 13 against NAU but lost the lead and the game late. Against Morehead State, the Lobos led 39:33 and by as many as 24 in the fourth, but the lead was cut down to 10 in the 66-56 final. They have only trailed for 3:47 (3:30 vs. NAU, 0:17 vs. MSU).
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Alyssa Hargrove reached double digits in her first two official games as a Lobo, averaging 11.5 ppg on the week. Additionally, she averaged 3.5 rpg, 3.5 apg, 1.5 spg and 1.0 bpg in 29.5 mpg, while shooting 44.4% from the floor and 50.0% from three with two three-pointers in both games. Hargrove also led the Lobos with four assists and a game-high two steals in the season opener.
Destinee Hooks scored a game-high 21 points in the season opener, including 12 points at the half on 5-7 shooting. Hooks scored five consecutive points for UNM in the fourth quarter, including a game-tying three-pointer with 49 seconds left to tie the game at 75. She later made a free throw with 2.4 seconds left that tied the game at 78.
Off the bench, freshman Reza Po also had a strong first game as a Lobo with five points, two assists, a steal and a block and went 4-4 from the free-throw line with three assists and a block in Thursday’s game.
FAST-BREAK POINTS
Through the first two games, UNM had a 32-20 advantage in fast-break points. The Lobos had a 14-5 margin in fast-break points with two three-pointers and four layups against NAU and an 18-15 advantage against Morehead State with four three-pointers, two free-throws and two layups Against NAU, two of those layups came as a result of steals while the remaining 10 points came off of defensive rebounds. Against MSU, six came off of defensive rebounds and one on a steal.
THE CUMBER EFFECT
Vianè Cumber picked up right where she left off in the season opener, scoring 14 points with two three-pointers and nearly tallied a double-double with a team-high eight rebounds. She also played a team-high 32:13 without recording a turnover.
She took over in the game against Morehead State, scoring a game-high 23 points and a game-high 12 rebounds for her first double-double of the season, hitting seven three-pointers. It was one point and one three-pointer shy of matching her career highs in both categories. Cumber went 4-4 from three-point range in the fourth quarter and went 5-5 in the final two quarters while bringing down five rebounds.
Cumber led the Lobos with an average of 18.5 ppg and 10.0 rpg on the week, shooting 48.0% from the floor and 56.3% from behind the arc with nine three-pointers.
Last season, the New Mexico native scored in double figures in 17 games with four games of 20-plus points, leading the Lobos in scoring six times. The Lobo also registered three double-doubles, with 14 points and a career-high 14 rebounds against Eastern Illinois, 21 points and 11 rebounds against Utah State and 11 rebounds and 10 points at San Diego State.
Among one of the best three-point shooters in the conference, she made three or more three-pointers 10 times last season: two against Eastern Illinois and SJSU, three at Pepperdine, against Tarleton State and Fresno State, four in the season opener, five against No. 20 Gonzaga, Utah State and Nevada, six against No. 25 UNLV and a career-best eight against Montana State.
Cumber is on the verge of a couple of reachable milestones with 739 points (261 away from 1,000) and 167 three-pointers, seventh all-time in program history. She is 72 from tying the program record of 239 set by LaTascya Duff and would have to average roughly two to three three-pointers per game.
In her career, she has made a three in 60 games with 46 games with multiple threes and 25 games making three or more three-pointers.
Further, Cumber has scored in double figures 38 times and 20 or more points seven times in her career.
ABOUT TEXAS TECH
Texas Tech has outscored its opponents 141-88 with two players averaging double figures in Jasmine Shavers (15.0) and Bailey Maupin (11.0). Adlee Blacklock led the team in scoring against UIW with 14 points and Shavers led against Houston Christian with 17 points.
The Lady Raiders are sound defensively, allowing 44.0 ppg (ranked 31st in the NCAA) and have forced 27.0 per game (24th in the NCAA) with an average of 12 steals per game and six blocks per game. Jalynn Bristow leads the team with six steals with Kilah Freelon behind her at five, and Sarengbe Sanogo and Jordan Merritt each have four blocks to lead the team.
TTU was picked to finish 10th in the Big 12 out of 16 teams, earning 84 points.