ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The Lobos led for 26:19 of Saturday’s game against Nevada and held a 53-48 lead at the end of the third quarter, but couldn’t hold on to the lead in the 70-61 loss.
Destinee Hooks led the team with 13 points with Joana Magalhães scoring 11 points. Laila Abdurraqib led with a season-high four assists to go with two steals and eight points.
The Lobo defense forced a shot clock violation on Nevada’s first possession of the game with Hooks hitting a three on the other end. The Wolf Pack went on a 5-0 run to take a lead before the Lobos answered with a 6-0 run behind a Magalhães layup, jumper by Hooks and a layup from Drew Jordon for the 9-5 Lobo lead with 2:04 left. UNM’s lead fluctuated between two and four points before layups by Jordon and Abdurraqib, with Abdurraqib completing a three-point play at the line, in the final 34 seconds put the Lobos in front 16-9 at the end of the first.
The nine points scored in the first continued the trend of holding an opponent to below 10 points in a quarter, the 10th game overall and fourth consecutive game doing so this season, as the Lobos shot 58.3% from the floor compared to 28.6% for Nevada. Of UNM’s 16 points, 12 were in the paint, 11 were scored from bench players and eight came off of Nevada’s seven turnovers.
Hooks opened the second quarter with a three to extend the run and the lead to double digits at 10, however, Nevada cut the lead down to five at 19-14. A layup by Magalhães and three from Hooks extended the lead to nine at 26-17 with 3:42 remaining in the quarter, with the Wolf Pack cutting it down to four on a 5-0 run. A Magalhães three-pointer with 1:18 left provided the final points of the quarter for the Lobos with the Wolf Pack scoring the final four points for the 33-31 Lobo lead at the half.
Magalhães scored seven points with Hooks scoring six in the second quarter as Hooks and Magalhães led the Lobos with 11 points each through the first two quarters. UNM shot 50.0% from the floor in the first 20 minutes, 40.0% from three-point range, holding the edge in both. Nevada held the rebounding edge at 23-11 with the Wolf Pack scoring seven points off second-chance opportunities to none for the Lobos.
An Alyssa Hargrove corner three pushed the margin back to five to open the third quarter with the Lobos stretching the lead to seven at 40-33 on a Nayli Padilla layup less than two minutes in. After a layup by Hooks made it 44-37, Nevada closed to take a 46-44 lead on a 9-0 run with a Hargrove layup tying the game back up. Antonio made two free throws to change the lead back to the Lobos and added a fast-break layup to keep the run going. A Wolf Pack layup ended the run, but Antonio kept the Lobos’ momentum with a three-pointer to close the scoring.
UNM led 53-48 at the end of the third with Antonio scoring nine points and Hargrove five in the quarter as each team shot 8-16.
Nevada used an 11-0 run at the start of the fourth quarter to take a 59-53 lead with 6:43 left with the Lobos unable to mount a run of their own, only scoring eight points in the final quarter. An Abdurraqib three-pointer with 4:51 left pulled the Lobos within five, which was the closest the Lobos could get. UNM shot 3-15 in the quarter and made only one of its seven three-point attempts, with Abdurraqib accounting for five of the eight points.
The Lobos (12-5, 4-2 MW) return to the road to face San Diego State on Wednesday at 12 p.m. MT.