WEST MESA GIRLS HOLD ON, ADVANCE

Lobos heading into MWC tournament with some momentum

Emily

Burk and the thirdseeded Mustangs finished strong to knock off Oñate and earn a spot in the Class 6A quarterfinals.

FRESNO, Calif. — Momentum-builders don’t come too much better than this.

The University of New Mexico women’s basketball team finished regulation with a 10-0 run and pulled out a wild 93-89 overtime victory at Fresno State on Friday night to go into next week’s Mountain West tournament on a high note.

Cherise Beynon racked up a triple-double (22 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists) and Tesha Buck scored 30 points for UNM (22-9, 10-8), which trailed by as many as 17 points and never led until Jaisa Nunn scored inside with 1:53 left in overtime.

Nunn scored eight of her 22 points in the extra period and completed her 17th doubledouble of the season with 11 rebounds.

“I thought our kids showed tremendous toughness and grit,” Lobo coach Mike Bradbury said in a postgame phone interview. “We’ve had a couple close ones stolen from us this year and we probably stole this one. That’s a really good way to go into the conference tournament.”

UNM’s win was part of a wild final night of Mountain West play. Boise State won at Wyoming to share the regular-season title with UNLV (a winner over Utah State). The Broncos will be the No. 1 tournament seed, followed by UNLV and Wyoming.

The sixth-seeded Lobos will face No. 11 San Jose State in Monday’s opening round after the Spartans lost a 66-60 decision to Air Force on Friday.

“We’ll start worrying about San Jose State (today),” Bradbury said. “We’re going to really enjoy the flight home first.”

Fresno State (16-13, 11-7) seemed poised to run the Lobos out of the Save Mart Center in the first half. The Bulldogs led 46-29 on Maddi Utti’s layup with 3:31 left in the second quarter.

But a technical foul on Bradbury and an ensuing conversation with his players seemed to motivate the Lobos, who trimmed the deficit to 48-38 by halftime.

UNM got as close as 69-68 early in the fourth quarter but FSU used a 10-1 run to regain a double-digit lead with 4:38 left. Candice White scored 32 points for the home team.

But Beynon hit a pair of jumpers, and Buck and Madi Washington hit key 3-pointers during UNM’s 10-0 finishing run.