PHOENIX, Ariz.— Alyssa Hargrove made the first basket and the final basket of Wednesday’s game at Grand Canyon, hitting a buzzer-beater off of a Nayli Padilla out of bounds alley-oop as time expired for the 70-68 road win.
Joana Magalhães led the Lobos with 15 points, going 9-10 from the free-throw line, and a team-high five assists, one of four Lobos to finish in double figures. Emma Najjuma registered her first double-double as a Lobo with 12 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Hargrove had 10 points to go with five rebounds and Cacia Antonio finished with 14 points and had eight rebounds as the Lobos outrebounded the Lopes 39-27 with 15 offensive rebounds.
UNM also had the edge in second-chance points (17-6), paint points (38-16), steals (7-4) and bench points (22-1), and led for 38:47 of the game.
The Lobos made their first two shots with Hargrove hitting a corner three and Antonio adding to the lead with a layup in the first 1:07. While GCU answered with the next five points to tie the game, Antonio gave the Lobos the lead right back on a layup and added a straightaway three. The Lopes cut the lead to one midway through the quarter with a Magalhães jumper and Laila Abdurraqib steal leading the a three-pointer by the freshman off of a Najjuma offensive rebound for the 15-9 Lobo lead.
Four final points off of layups by Padilla and Hooks extended UNM’s lead to 21-13 at the end of the first with Antonio accounting for seven points and UNM shooting 52.9% from the floor.
GCU cut the lead to two at 23-21 before consecutive Najjuma layups provided a six-point margin. A Lope three-pointer cut the lead in half, but again, UNM responded with a Najjuma offensive rebound leading to a Padilla jumper. After GCU pulled back within three, a 7-0 Lobo run behind four Magalhães free throws and an Antonio three-pointer propelled UNM to its largest lead of the game at 36-26 with 1:47 left in the second quarter. A GCU steal and layup closed the quarter with the Lobos leading 36-28 at the half behind 10 points from Antonio and six points and eight rebounds from Najjuma.
Jessie Joaquim opened the third quarter with a layup off of an offensive board to put the lead back to 10, to which GCU whittled it down to two at 39-37 with 5:50 left in the quarter. Magalhães made two free throws to build the lead to four with GCU then going on a 5-0 run to take its first lead of the game at 42-41 with 3:51 left.
A Najjuma layup 22 seconds later restored the lead to the visitors, starting what would be a 6-0 Lobo run with a Magalhães layup and Antonio layup off of her offensive rebound. GCU pulled within a possession at 49-47 with 55 seconds remaining in the quarter, but the Lobos closed with a 6-1 run on a Njjuma offensive rebound and layup to give her 12 points and 11 rebounds in the game, two Antonio free throws and a Hargrove jumper for the 55-48 Lobo lead.
The Lobos scored 14 of their 19 points in the quarter in the paint with eight coming on second-chance points with UNM grabbing 15 rebounds, seven offensive.
Two quick three-pointers by the Lopes in the fourth quarter brought the margin down to a point with Destinee Hooks giving UNM its first points of the quarter on a jumper. A 4-0 GCU run gave the Lopes a one-point lead midway through the quarter with a layup by Magalhães putting the Lobos back in front. Magalhães added a free throw and assisted on a Hargrove corner three off of an Antonio steal to put UNM up 63-58 with 2:44 remaining before GCU used a run to close within one at 63-62 with 1:28 left. Two Magalhães free throws extended the lead to three with 1:13 left to which a GCU layup kept the Lopes within reach at one. The two teams traded a pair of free throws with Padilla hitting two with 24 seconds left and Padilla split a pair with 10 seconds left for the two-point lead. A foul with 1.2 seconds left led to two GCU free throws that tied the game with UNM using its last timeout to advance the ball and set up the game-winning basket.
There were two ties and two lead changes in the final 10 minutes with UNM leading for 9:35.
With the win, the Lobos improve to 18-9 on the season, 10-6 in conference, and marks the sixth consecutive year reaching double-digit conference wins and the ninth time in Head Coach Mike Bradbury’s 10 years at UNM.
The Lobos return home to host Air Force on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 1 p.m. for Senior Day.