ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— Three Lobos finished in double figures, but the offense as a whole struggled with the Lobos shooting 26.8% and 2-10 from behind the arc in the 66-46 loss to Colorado State Saturday.
Alyssa Hargrove led the Lobos with 12 points with Cacia Antonio and Nayli Padilla scoring 10 points.
Colorado State missed its first four shots of the contest with the Lobos missing their first three before Jessie Joaquim opened the scoring with a layup 2:07 in. The Rams led 4-2 before the Lobos used an 8-0 run to take the 10-4 lead behind three-point plays by Padilla and Antonio with 4:20 left. UNM led 12-8 with 2:26 left with the Rams going on an 11-0 run of their own in the final 2:19 to lead 19-12 at the end of the first quarter.
Padilla led the Lobos with five points on 2-3 shooting, with eight of the 12 points coming from the paint.
Hargrove grabbed her own three-point miss for a layup to start the second quarter, however, CSU made consecutive three-pointers to put the Lobos in an 11-point deficit, with the Lobos going 2:52 between points on a Joana Magalhães jumper. CSU built the deficit back to 10 points at 29-19 with 3:28 remaining in the quarter, with a Hargrove three-pointer starting an 8-2 Lobo run, including scoring the final five points, to close the quarter to bring UNM within four at the half at 31-27.
The Rams scored the first 19 points of the third quarter before Destinee Hooks made a layup with 2:36 left in the quarter, with Hargrove scoring the final points of the quarter off of a steal with seven seconds left that led to a fast-break layup as the quarter came to a close.
UNM scored the first four points of the fourth quarter on a layup by Hooks and two free throws by Antonio brought the Lobos within 15 with 6:33 remaining in the game, the closest the Lobos got for the remainder of the game. A pair of free throws by Antonio and Padilla that put both in double figures kept the Lobos within 16 before CSU pushed the margin to 21. A Hargrove three[pointer pushed the Lobo into double figures with the Rams going on a 4-0 run to build a 66-44 lead before Hargrove closed the game with a layup for the final margin.
UNM dropped to 17-9 on the season, 9-6 in conference play and heads to GCU on Wednesday, Feb. 18.