Lobo women set to return to Pit
UNM to face Rice, with chances to keep playing at home affected by attendance
Chalk up round one as a success for the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team.
The Women’s National Invitation Tournament only gets tougher from here.
The Lobos (24-10) extended their season with a hard-fought 82-80 victory over Saint Mary’s at cozy Johnson Center on Thursday night, needing every bit of Cherise Beynon’s 33-point performance to advance. UNM also needed every bit of energy it could pull from an enthusiastic crowd announced at 1,428. Lobo coach Mike Bradbury and his players spent time high-fiving fans after the victory.
“It was a great atmosphere,” Bradbury said. “The crowd was great, and it looked a lot bigger than what was announced. This is why this place is special and why we get these games at home.”
UNM’s performance and the crowd were enough to secure another home game for the Lobos, who
will host Rice (23-9) at Dreamstyle Arena on Tuesday. New Mexico will likely need a more complete performance and a bigger crowd if it wants to keep its postseason homestand rolling.
The on-court challenge will require UNM to hold down Rice’s talented sisters, Erica and Olivia Ogwumike. Their older siblings, Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike, starred at Stanford and are now WNBA standouts.
In the stands, UNM may need something closer to its average regular-season attendance (5,124) to avoid a potential road game. Rice drew just 320 fans for its first-round win over Texas State on Thursday, and WNIT game sites are heavily weighted toward programs that draw well. The Owls, therefore, are New Mexico-bound.
The UNM-Rice winner will face the TCU-Missouri State survivor in round three. TCU drew 1,330 for its first-round win over Lamar, just 98 fewer fans than UNM attracted.
“I really like playing in Albuquerque,” Beynon said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s here (Johnson Center) or at the Pit. I think we all just love playing in front of our fans.”
Tuesday’s UNM-Rice game is on the final day of a three-day WNIT window for second-round contests, allowing as much time as possible to prepare the Pit after this weekend’s PBR Ty Murray Invitational, which concludes Sunday. Third-round games are to be played Wednesday through Friday.
SOLID START: Mountain West teams went 3-1 in opening-round WNIT games. Colorado State edged Western Illinois (67-64), Wyoming topped New Mexico State (67-59), and UNLV fell at Utah (78-68).
FOUL MOOD: The 48 combined fouls called on UNM and Saint Mary’s were the most in any New Mexico game this season. The teams’ 54 combined free throws fell one short of the 55 by the Lobos and Western Michigan in the season opener, but Saint Mary’s 33 foul shots were a season high for a UNM opponent.
STILL CLIMBING: Beynon’s 33 points Thursday gave her 567 scored this season and 1,736 for her career. Those totals rank second and third, respectively, in UNM program history. Abby Garchek scored 666 points during the 1997-98 season, while Dionne Marsh (1,913 points from 2004-08) and Jordan Adams (1,798 from 1999-2003) rank ahead of Beynon on the career scoring list.