ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The Lobos scored the first seven points of Wednesday’s morning contest against New Orleans and never looked back, winning 99-65 behind four players in double figures.
Nayli Padilla led the Lobos in scoring with 17 points while coming off the bench, besting her career high from the last game against North Carolina A&T of 15 points, while tying her career high of three, three-pointers. Destinee Hooks finished with 16 points and Cacia Antonio and Drew Jordon each contributed 10 points.
As a whole, the bench accounted for 51 of UNM’s total points and as a team, the Lobos shot 52.2% from the floor with 21 assists on the 35 made field goals. At the line, the Lobos were an efficient 20-23, making their first eight free throws and behind the arc made nine three-pointers.
Defensively, the Lobos tallied their third game with double-digit steals this season with 18 steals, led by a career-best seven from Alyssa Hargrove. Drew Jordon was credited with three and Laila Abdurraquib and Tyler Jones each had two.
The Lobos got out to an early lead with Antonio making her first basket as a Lobo to open the scoring 34 seconds in and five consecutive points from Joana Magalhães led to an opening 7-0 run to start the game. The Lobos built a 15-4 lead within the first 4:29 with the lead growing to 21 at 27-6 behind a 9-0 run in a span of 1:11. A jumper from Hooks with 18 seconds left closed the quarter with UNM leading 37-12, with Hooks finishing with nine points on 3-4 shooting in the quarter.
Padilla scored eight points and Magalhães scored seven points, with UNM shooting 72.2% from the floor on 13-18 shooting with five three-pointers and scored 17 points on fast-break opportunities.
Five quick points from a Hargrove three and a Jordon layup stretched the lead to 30, with a Jessie Joaquim three-point play pushing the margin to 32 at 47-15 with 7:13 left to play In the second. The lead held in the 30-point range for much of the quarter with Padilla scoring the final five points for the Lobos for the 65-25 lead at the break, including a three-pointer with three seconds remaining to give her 13 points at the half.
UNM continued to shoot well from the floor in the second quarter, going 11-17 from the floor (64.7%) with the bench contributing 18 of the 28 points and 14 points coming in the paint.
In the first half, UNM registered 13 steals, four from Hargrove, and shot 68.6% on 24-35 shooting and 7-13 shooting from three-point range.
New Orleans went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead down to 33 less than three minutes into the third quarter before an Emma Najjuma layup at the 7:01 mark broke up the run. A three from Abdurraqib, a layup from Hooks and two Jordon free throws built the lead to 41 at 81-40 with 1:44 left, with the lead reaching its largest point of the game at 44 on a shot by Clarissa Craig off of Hargrove’s seventh steal with 30 seconds left in the quarter.
UNO closed with the final two points in the quarter for the 86-44 Lobo lead after the third.
The Privateers whittled the margin down in the fourth quarter to as low as 30 before UNM extended the lead back to 34, which held as the final margin.
UNM (3-1) returns to the road and heads south to New Mexico State on Sunday afternoon.