Cumber Leads Lobos in Scoring in Loss to Aggies
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— In a game that had 13 lead changes and five ties, the Lobos fell to New Mexico State 81-71 in the first of the meetings this season on Friday night.
The trio of Viané Cumber, Destinee Hooks and Alyssa Hargrove finished in double figures, led by 18 from Cumber who went 7-7 from the free-throw line and recorded her ninth game this season with double digits. Hooks finished with 15 with a season-high three three-pointers to go with three assists to tie the team high, and Hargrove tallied 12 points with two three-pointers, three assists and a game-high five steals, the second-straight game with five steals for the senior. Hooks has finished in double digits eight times this season and in the last seven games, while Hargrove has scored in double figures for the sixth time this season.
As a team, UNM had 10 steals in the game with Hulda Joaquim credited with three to go with six rebounds, tying Cumber in rebounds for the team high.
Hargrove free thows opened the scoring less than a minute in, but after NMSU tied the score on a layup, both teams went on a scoring drought until the 6:38 mark when NMSU made a free throw to go up 3-2. Hooks fed Joaquim on the next Lobo possession to put the home team back in front, with both teams trading baskets on their next possessions for the 6-5 Lobo lead. A Hargrove three put the Lobo in front 9-7 followed by a Cumber jumper to go up 11-7 and led 11-10 at the media timeout.
UNM stretched the lead back to four at 16-12 on an Amhyia Moreland layup, however, NMSU answered to tie the game at 16. UNM responded with a 6-0 run on threes from Paris Lauro and Hooks put UNM back up 22-16 with UNM holding a 22-18 advantage at the end of the first, led by five from Hargrove.
The teams traded threes with Hooks hitting her second of the game to make it 27-23 UNM 2:20 into the second and a Lydie Mwamba corner three pushed the margin to five at 35-30 with three minutes remaining, which was the last basket of the quarter for the Lobos. A 6-0 Aggie run put the visitors up by one at the break, while the Lobos missed their last six shots, including two in the paint in the final two seconds.
UNM led for 9:05 of the second quarter with NMSU leading for 0:47 and scored five points off of seven Aggie turnovers. In addition, the Lobos had six steals at the break, led by three from Hargrove, while Hooks led with eight points.
There were two ties and nine lead changes in the first 20 minutes with UNM leading for 15:06 to 1:51 for NMSU.
Each team scored on their opening possession of the third quarter to maintain the one-point margin, but Hooks hit a pair of free throws to put the Lobos back in front 39-38, which also gave her double figures. Hooks made her third three on the next Lobo possession for a 42-40 lead, which NMSU tied and went up 44-42 with Hargrove tying it on a layup. A 5-0 Aggie run created another lead change with two Cumber free throws making it a three-point game at 49-46 with 4:24 left in the third. NMSU stretched the deficit to 10 at 61-51 at the end of the third.
UNM whittled a 13-point deficit of 68-55 down to six (68-62) on a Cumber layup off of a Hargrove steal with 4:50 remaining in the fourth quarter, and again at 70-64 on two Cumber free throws with 4:10 to play, ultimately closing to within five twice in the final 1:16 but couldn’t get any closer.
Cumber scored 11 points in the fourth quarter on 3-5 shooting and 5-5 from the free-throw line while also grabbing four rebounds in the final quarter.
UNM heads to Las Cruces to complete the season series with the Aggies with the start time set for 2 p.m. on Sunday.