ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— New Mexico’s first television game of the season will be must-see television as the Lobos host undefeated Texas Tech on Sunday riding a four-game win streak.
UNM (5-1) and Texas Tech (6-0) will tip off at 1 p.m. on Altitude Sports as well as on the Mountain West Network. TTU is coming off of a 69-62 win over Mississippi State on Thursday, however, Sunday will be its first road game of the season. UNM is 4-0 at home and is coming off of a 77-45 win against UT Martin on Thursday.
SERIES HISTORY
Sunday will be the 22nd meeting between the teams and the first in The Pit since 2017. The 2017 game was UNM’s last win in the series (90-56), with UNM’s four wins in the series all at home.
The last two games have been decided by seven points, with UNM losing 75-68 in Lubbock last season. Destinee Hooks scored a game-high 28 points against TTU, which still holds as her career high. Alyssa Hargrove scored 10 points and had two blocks, two steals, two assists and three rebounds. UNM led for 12:43 of the game, including at the end of the first quarter (23-18).
RELIABLE HOOKS
Destinee Hooks has scored in double figures in all six games and led the Lobos in scoring in three games, scoring 20 or more points in two. Hooks led the Lobos with a game-high 22 points at Colorado and followed that up with a game-high 20 points against North Carolina A&T. NC A&T was the eighth time scoring 20-plus points at UNM. In the last game against UT Martin, Hooks scored a game-high 15 points.
Through the first six games of the season, Hooks is averaging 15.8 points per game with 1.8 three-pointers per game, shooting 44.3% from the floor. She’s also averaging 4.3 rebounds per game, including 12 offensive rebounds that is tied for the team high.
Hooks is fourth in the conference in scoring, and is tied for ninth in three-pointers per game and seventh in field-goal percentage. Nationally, she is 42nd in points (95), 37th in field goals (35) and 29th in field goal attempts (79).
FAST START
The Lobos scored the first six points of Thursday’s game against UT Martin and never trailed in the 77-45 win, continuing a trend of getting out to fast starts.
The Lobos also made four of their first five shots in the season opener against Northern Arizona with Nayli Padilla accounting for five points. At Colorado, CU scored the first six points of the game, but three-pointers from Destinee Hooks and Clarissa Craig tied the game and two free throws by Craig and a basket by Joana Magalhães continued the Lobo run for the 10-6 UNM lead.
Against New Orleans, the Lobos scored the first seven points, 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. The Lobos shot 72.2% in the first quarter on 13-18 shooting with five three-pointers. UNM scored 65 points in the first two quarters.
UNM is outscoring opponents 107-77 (+30) in the first quarter, 136-75 in the second quarter (+61) and 243-152 (+91) in the first 20 minutes.
WIN THE QUARTER
The Lobos have won the second quarter in all six games this season, scoring 20-plus points in five games (twice with 28 points, twice with 22 points, once with 20) and holding opponents to 16 points or fewer in five.
Further, UNM has outscored its opponent in the first quarter three times (NAU, UNO, UTM), the third quarter four times (UNO, NAU, NMSU, UTM) and the fourth quarter three times (NAU, AT, UTM). The Lobos have also held their opponent below 10 points three times this season (five in the fourth quarter against NAU, four in the second quarter against NMSU and seven in the second quarter against UTM).
UNM is 3-0 when leading after the first quarter, 5-0 when leading at the half and 5-0 when leading after the third quarter.
GOING ON A STREAK
The Lobos have won their last four games, doing so convincingly. UNM is outscoring its opponents 81.0-54.7 for a +26.3 margin, shooting 46.2% from the floor and making 9.0 three-pointers which includes making 10 in each of the last two games.
UNM has held its last two opponents to below 50 points (45) and shooting 14.3% (NMSU) and 16.7% (UT Martin) from three-point range. Additionally, the Lobos hold a +15.5 rebounding margin (44.0-28.5) with a season-best 56 rebounds in their last game against UT Martin, and average 13.0 steals per game.
Three Lobos are averaging double figures in that span, led by 15.3 ppg from Destinee Hooks, 13.0 ppg from Nayli Padilla and 10.3 ppg from Cacia Antonio.
In the four games, UNM has led for 138:27 and never trailed in two games.
ABOUT THE OPPONENT
Texas Tech is averaging 80.0 points per game led by three players in double figures. Snudda Collins and Jalynn Bristow both average 16.7 points per game with Bailey Maupin averaging 16.3 points per game.
Maupin has made a team-high 12 three-pointers with four players with 10 or more three-pointers, with the Lady Raiders making 8.5 three-pointers per game, shooting 36.7%. Bristow leads the team in rebounds per game at 7.3 and in blocks (15). Gemma Nunez leads the team in assists (33) and steals (17), with TTU averaging 10.8 steals per game and 14.7 assists per game.
TTU has outscored its opponents in all four quarters, with the greatest margin in the second quarter (113-70, +43).
The Lady Raiders have a common opponent with the Lobos in North Carolina A&T, with TTU winning 78-40 in its season opener. TTU also has wins over SMU (91-60), Arkansas (80-68), Mississippi State, UTSA (79-52) and Texas State (83-50).
TTU and UNM are similar in field goal percentage (TTU has a 46.1 to 45.1 percent edge), three-pointers per game (UNM has an 8.8 to 8.5 edge) and assists (UNM has a 15.0-14.7 edge).