ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— With two preseason games to prepare the Lobos, the regular season begins on Monday night against Northern Arizona. The game is set to start at 7 p.m. with tickets still available.
SEASON OPENER STATS
UNM is 7-2 in season openers and 6-1 when opening the season at home under Coach Mike Bradbury. The Lobos have outscored their opponents 719-587 (+132) in season openers and average 79.9 points per game in season openers under Bradbury.
Monday will be the fifth time in program history that UNM opens the season against NAU, with the Lobos 2-2 in those previous games.
SERIES HISTORY
The Lobos will open the season with Northern Arizona for the second straight year. UNM is 23-7 all-time against NAU and 17-3 at home.
NAU won last year’s game 80-78 on a last-second shot to break a nine-game win streak in the series for the Lobos. Destinee Hooks scored a game-high 21 points with Alyssa Hargrove adding 12 points and a team-high four assists and two steals. UNM led for 34:12 and by as many as 13 in the third quarter, but was outscored 31-19 in the fourth quarter.
Coach Mike Bradbury is 3-1 all-time against NAU, 2-1 at home. In the four meetings, UNM has outscored NAU 317-275 (+42) and by a 79.3-68.8 ppg average.
PRESEASON PREDICTIONS
Destinee Hooks was selected to the Preseason All-Mountain West Team and the Lobos were picked to finish fifth in the Mountain West Preseason Poll.
UNM received two first-place votes and finished with 207 points, one of three teams to receive multiple first-place votes and one of six teams to receive a first-place vote. UNLV was picked as the preseason favorite with 19 first-place votes and 281 points with San Diego State second with 240 points and received three first-place votes. Colorado State was picked third with 236 points and one first-place vote and Boise State narrowly edged out the Lobos for the fourth spot in the order of finish with 210 points and received one first-place vote.
The separation between fifth and sixth was 13 points with Wyoming projected to finish sixth with new conference opponent Grand Canyon picked seventh with one first-place vote and 177 points. Air Force (132 points), Fresno State (95 points), Nevada (92 points), Utah State (54 points) and San José State (44 points) rounded out the order of finish.
For Hooks, the Lobo was one of 10 players selected for the preseason team, and comes after she earned Mountain West Honorable Mention following her first season as a Lobo.
Against conference opponents in 2024-25, Hooks reached double figures in 15 games, averaging 14.2 points per game, with two games of 20 or more points, including 27 points against UNLV. In addition, Hooks led the Lobos in scoring in eight conference games and finished 11th in the conference in scoring and 10th in field goal percentage (.420). Defensively, Hooks recorded a steal in 10 games with multiple steals in six.
Of note, while the Lobos were picked fifth, in the last five years, UNM finished second three times, won the league once and tied for fourth last season. Only twice in Coach Bradbury’s previous nine seasons has UNM finished lower than fifth.
NATIONALLY KNOWN
The Lobos are going national as their home game against Grand Canyon on Jan. 17 will be on FS1.
Being on national television is nothing new to the Lobos, as UNM was selected for two television games last season, at UNLV and against Colorado State, and at home against Air Force on New Year’s Day in 2023.
BIG 12 SCHEDULE
There’s a common theme among the nonconference schedule this season and that’s the presence of the Big 12 Conference.
Of UNM’s 11 nonconference games, five opponents are from the Big 12. The Lobos face Colorado on the road for their second game of the season, host Texas Tech on Nov. 23 and have three consecutive Big 12 opponents in Cincinnati on a neutral court in Naples, Florida on Nov. 29, Arizona (in Tucson on Dec. 7) and at home against Houston to close the nonconference schedule on Dec. 13.
RELYING ON THE RETURNERS
Heading into the season, the Lobos return a core of six players, led by junior Destinee Hooks, senior Alyssa Hargrove and sophomore Joana Magalhães, with the trio starting in over 30 games last season.
Hooks is UNM’s returning leading scorer, averaging 15.0 points per game, shooting 45.3% from the floor, and finished in double figures in 26 games with 20-plus points in six games, while starting in 31 games. Further, the Indiana native, who earned Mountain West Honorable Mention following her first year as a Lobo, recorded two double-doubles and finished third on the team in assists (58) and steals (28).
Hargrove started all 32 games in her first year as a Lobo, averaging 8.3 points per game, 3.7 rebounds per game, 2.2 steals per game and 0.9 blocks per game in 31.2 minutes per game. The Ohio native finished in double figures in 13 games and recorded her first double-double with 11 rebounds and 10 assists against Boise State, becoming the first Lobo to register an assist and rebound double-double since 2016. Strong on the defensive end, Hargrove recorded a steal in 28 games with 18 games with multiple steals and seven games with four or more steals, finishing second in the Mountain West in steals and steals per game and third in assists and assists per game.
In her freshman season, Magalhães started 30 games and played in all 32, earning a spot on the Mountain West All-Freshman Team. The guard averaged 7.1 points per game, 3.9 rebounds per game, 2.5 assists per game, 1.4 steals per game and scored in double figures in 11 games with a season-high 20 points at Colorado State. Further, she had five or more assists in four games with a season-high six against Morehead State and recorded a steal in 22 games with multiple steals in 14 games.
UNM also returns Clarissa Craig, who sat out all of last year due to injury, and adds an inside presence for the Lobos after spending the previous two seasons at Cincinnati.
MEET THE NEWCOMERS
In the offseason, the Lobos brought in seven players with four highly-touted freshmen in Laila Abdurraqib, Tyler Jones, Leonor Peixinho and Kaia Foster, and added three transfers in Cacia Antonio, Emma Najjuma and Jessie Joaquim.
GLOBAL LOBOS
The Lobos bring an international flair to the roster with players representing three continents and six countries (Angola, Uganda, Portugal, Spain, Mozambique and the United States). Further, while from three different countries, four players speak Portuguese (Joana Magalhães, Cacia Antonio, Leonor Peixinho and Jessie Joaquim).
Antonio played for the Angola National Team, Peixinho played for Portugal over the summer and Emma Najjuma played for the Uganda National Team.
EXHIBIT A AND B
While the sample size is small, and the games didn’t count, the Lobos showed their potential in their two exhibitions against Adams State and on the road at UT Arlington, winning both games by significant margins.
UNM had five double-digit scorers in the win at UT Arlington, using a third quarter run to effectively put the game out of reach. In addition to efficiency on the offensive end, the Lobos held the Lady Mavs to eight points in the third quarter and without a three-pointer in the contest. In the first exhibition against Adams State, the Grizzlies made one three-pointer and UNM held the Grizzlies below 10 points in the first, second and third quarters.
Defensive pressure was the common theme in both exhibitions, creating 11 steals in both games with five players credited with a steal and three players with multiple steals in each of the games. The Lobos also had the advantage on the boards, finishing +8 against UT Arlington and +28 against Adams State. Last season, the Lobos led the Mountain West in rebounds per game at 39.0
Between the two games, UNM trailed for just 2:28.
SHARE THE WEALTH
Eleven players scored in both exhibitions with two reaching double figures in the first exhibition and five in the second exhibition. Of UNM’s 25 made baskets at UT Arlington, 18 were assisted, an improvement from the 15 assists on the 32 made baskets in the first exhibition.
HOW MUCH DO YOU BENCH
The bench proved to be a sign of strength for the Lobos in both games to date, with 33 points against Adams State coming from the bench and 26 points at UTA. Additionally, the bench combined for seven assists, five steals and 25 rebounds at UTA and six steals and 29 rebounds against ASU.
THANKSGIVING FAMILY REUNION
As mentioned earlier, the Lobos will play Cincinnati in Naples, Florida two days after Thanksgiving and there will be several familiar faces on the other bench.
Head Coach Katrina Merriweather was an assistant coach under Coach Bradbury for six seasons at Wright State (2010-16) before becoming the head coach.when Bradbury left to become the head coach at UNM.
Kabrina Merriweather, an associate coach for the Bearcats, was an assistant coach at UNM during the 2021-22 season and served as the director of operations during the 2020-21 season.
Additionally, Cincinnati’s assistant general manager is Symone Denham, who was at New Mexico for five years, serving as the video coordinator in 2017 before working as an assistant coach in 2018 and as both assistant coach and director of basketball operations during the 2019-20 season, all with Coach Bradbury. Denham also played for Coach Bradbury at Wright State from 2012 to 2016.
There’s another connection between the two teams in that Clarissa Craig played for Coach Merriweather at Cincinnati in the 2023-24 season.
ABOUT THE OPPONENT
NAU enters the 2025-26 season with a new head coach in Laura Dinkins, two returners in Faith Curry and Audrey Taylor and 14 newcomers that includes seven DI transfers after going 27-8 last season. Taylor played in 34 games last season with one start and averaged 2.2 points per game, 1.4 assists per game and 1.1 rebounds per game in 9.9 minutes per game. Curry redshirted last season.
Out of the Big Sky, the Lumberjacks tied for ninth in the preseason coaches’ poll and picked eighth in the preseason media poll.
NAU defeated Arizona Christian 96-68 in its lone exhibition.