PROVO, Utah— The Lobos close out the week on the road with a Saturday night game at BYU with tip set for 7 pm on ESPN+.
UNM is 1-2 on the season following a loss at Fresno State on Wednesday with BYU 4-0 following a win against Bethune-Cookman.
SERIES HISTORY
UNM hasn’t played BYU since 2011, with the Lobos and Cougars both in the Mountain West from 1999 to 2011, when BYU left to join the West Coast Conference before joining the Big 12 in 2023. The Cougars lead the series 38-29. UNM is 8-23 in Provo, with the last win coming on Jan. 27, 2010, a 60-57 win. The Lobos won six straight in the series between 2008 and 2010.
LAILA LEADS
Laila Abdurraqib has held the game high in all three games with 20 points against Seattle, 15 against New Mexico Highlands and 17 against Fresno State.
The Indiana native led the Lobos with a game-high 20 points and a career-high 10 rebounds for her first career double-double, while playing a career-high 30 minutes in the season opener.
Abdurraqib scored six points in the second quarter, nine points in the third quarter and five points in the fourth quarter for the 20 points, the second time scoring 20 or more points in her two seasons at UNM. In addition, the guard had three assists and two steals.
She later led the Lobos in the win against New Mexico Highlands with a game-high 15 points to go with seven rebounds, tying the team high in the category. At Fresno State, Abdurraqib scored a game-high 17 points to go with a team-high six rebounds and tied for the team high in assists with two.
LAILA BREAKS OUT IN THE THIRD
In the three games, Laila Abdurraqib has scored 20 points, 15 points and 17 points. Of those, the bulk has come in the third quarter.
The Lobo guard scored nine of her 20 points in the third quarter against Seattle (45%) and 12 of her 15 points in the third quarter against New Mexico Highlands (80%). Nine of her 17 points at Fresno State came in the third quarter (52.9%) with 12 of her points coming in the second half (70.6%). Abdurraqib scored 14 points in the second half against SU (70%).
PAINT IT UP
The Lobos have scored a combined 108 points in the paint between the three games, accounting for 58.1% of UNM’s points scored. The Lobos scored 36 paint points against Seattle, 38 paint points against New Mexico Highlands, nearly matching NMHU’s total points (39) and 34 points in the paint against Fresno State (60.7% of the total points).
ABOUT THE OPPONENT
BYU is 4-0 on the season with wins against Idaho State, Portland, Montana and Bethune-Cookman and all of its games at home.
The Cougars are averaging 80.0 points per game and allowing 55.8 points per game. Olivia Hamlin leads the team at 15.0 points per game with Delaney Gibb averaging 13.8 points per game. Gibb leads the team with seven three-pointers and 10 made free-throws, as well as in rebounds at 7.3 rebounds per game. BYU averages 46.3 rebounds per game with over 18 on the offensive boards, with the opponents averaging 32.3 rebounds per game. Brinley Cannon leads with 2.5 steals per game in the four games with BYU averaging 12.0 steals per game.