Top-seeded UNM rolls past Air Force in MWC opener
Fresno State may pose greater challenge today
From the cocoon of the Lobo basketball pandemic bubble, Mike Bradbury isn’t sure what people are saying about his University of New Mexico women’s program, let alone what they’re thinking.
After Monday afternoon’s 67-51 win over Air Force in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference Tournament in Las Vegas, Nev., Bradbury was asked if he felt his team needed to win the league’s postseason title in order to reach the Big Dance next week.
Entering this week, the Lobos were No. 50 in the NCAA’s NET Ratings, easily the highest of any team in the Mountain West. It stands to reason they’d be a solid candidate for an at-large bid, even if they don’t capture the MWC’s automatic NCAA Tournament berth by winning the championship Wednesday night.
Then again, nothing in the 2020-21 college basketball season has been a certainty for UNM. Not even Bradbury, who seemed a logical choice for MWC coach of the year award after pulling a minor miracle with a traveling band of nomads, didn’t get the recognition he deserved.
Given up for dead after New Mexico’s public health order prohibited the team from playing or practicing at home until the final week of the season, the Lobos won the program’s first outright regular season MWC title.
“You know, I don’t know how we’re viewed because we’ve had a different season than a lot of people, so I’m not sure,” Bradbury said. “We’re just going to try to get prepared and see if we can win tomorrow.”
Tuesday’s matchup against Fresno State is considerably tougher. The Bulldogs have the conference player of the year in Haley Cavinder and it was Fresno that handed UNM its worst loss of the season, a 22-point drubbing back on Jan. 30.
Monday’s win was, on paper, a cakewalk. The Lobos held Air Force to 36 percent shooting and used a 20-2 run in the first half and an 18-2 spurt in the second half to put the game away.
As usual, UNM’s balanced scoring and vastly underrated defense did the trick. Four Lobos finished in double figures while Antonia Anderson was one point shy of a double-double, finishing with nine points and 10 rebounds. All-conference guard LaTascya Duff dropped in a team-high 14 points.
“I feel like once we’re dialed in and all talking and communicating, we’re really good at defense,” Duff said. “Especially when we’re on the help line and the gaps and stuff like that.”
If fans were actually able to attend a Lobo game this year, they’d hear him scream the words, “Get back!” a couple dozen times. It’s his go-to phrase any time the Lobos miss a shot and the opposing team starts its transition. UNM, he said, may not have the overwhelming size other teams have, but what they lack in bigs they more than make up for in speed and intensity.
“Today we played well on defense but we could have picked it up a little bit more,” Duff said.
The Lobos (15-3) only gave up six fast-break points and trailed for just two minutes over the course of the game.
The idea of playing game after game in a city far from home is pretty much the last thing that’s going to keep them from staying focused on the task at hand.
Duff said life on the road this season is actually a plus this week.
“I feel like traveling before this helped us mentally, so being here is just another day, another game,” she said.
The Lobos have built their reputation this season on their style of play, and part of that is learning to fight through the lulls nearly every game provides. No matter how well things are going, this team seems to take a punch better than most.
When Air Force cut a double-digit deficit to 41-39 late in the third quarter, UNM cranked up the intensity at both ends long enough to put the game out of reach.
“That’s part of, kind of, our DNA this year,” Bradbury said. “Nothing’s been easy, so even those things aren’t easy, either.”
NOTES
The Lobos have equaled their win total from all of last season when they finished 15-17 overall and 6-12 in the Mountain West. ... This will be the 12th season in school history in which the team will finish with single-digit losses, the last coming two years ago when Bradbury guided them to a 24-7 mark after starting 23-4. They lost to Denver in the opening round of the WNIT that season . ... The Lobos haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament in 13 years. That 2007-08 team is also the last to win the conference tournament.