UNM women waiting to see where they’ll land in postseason
Lobos fall to Fresno State in Mountain West Tournament, can play in WNIT but hang hopes on receiving bid to NCAA show
Five days.
That’s how long it will take for the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team to learn its postseason fate.
Five days to sit and ruminate over what comes next. Five days to see if its 19-game résumé, devoid of marquee nonconference opponents or dazzling wins against top-quality opponents, is deep enough to impress the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee.
The Lobos dropped into wait-and-see mode with Tuesday’s 77-72 loss to Fresno State in the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference Tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nev. The Bulldogs, who took two of three games against UNM this season, held the Lobos to just two free throws and no field goals in the last 3 minutes, 35 seconds.
At 15-4 and the regular-season champion of the Mountain West, New Mexico was banking on the fact that a win Tuesday likely would have secured an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament regardless of Wednesday’s outcome.
“It goes without saying, it’s obvious how tough it is here,” said UNM senior center Antonia Anderson. “You win the championship, you finally get to play at home so you come to the tournament and you expect to just keep rolling and for it to not fall apart.”
Anderson said the team’s body of work is strong enough to warrant an NCAA bid, but Lobos coach Mike Bradbury said the idea moving forward isn’t Big Dance or bust. If the team doesn’t receive an at-large bid during Monday’s Selection Show, he said the Lobos will take whatever alphabet soup tournament they can get.
As the regular season conference champs, they’ve already secured an automatic bid to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.
“We’re going to play another game,” Bradbury said, shooting down the notion that he’d turn down a WINT bid if the Lobos get the NCAA snub.
The Lobos hit 10 3-pointers in the game and got a game-high 23 points from senior guard Jaedyn De La Cerda, but with the game on the line in the final minute, the team’s leading scorer was left on the bench coming out of a timeout with 23 seconds left and Fresno State holding a 75-72 lead. The Lobos turned the ball over before taking a shot, but got one last chance when the Bulldogs’ Hanna Cavinder missed two free throws with 14 seconds to go.
This time De La Cerda got her chance, but her challenged 3-ball from near the top of the key bounced off the front of the rim and Fresno State won.
“New Mexico is as good as they come,” said Bulldogs coach Jaime White. “They’ve had an up and down season and that’s been hard as far as their facilities and COVID and all of that, so I’m proud of them. They really weathered the storm.”
The Lobos, of course, had just two home games all season. Their games against Fresno State during the regular season were held in Canyon, Texas.
As well as the Lobos played, Bradbury couldn’t help but show some emotion when asked about the journey his team has been on since it all began in November.
“What I’ve been telling you guys for a while, we had everything stacked against us all year long and these kids never made an excuse, never batted an eye, just kept on winning,” he said. “And never complained. You know, we got no favors from anybody. I mean, from our own state to our own league to our own whatever. And they just kept on fighting and fighting and fighting. I couldn’t be more proud of a team than this one right here.”
UNM’s biggest problem in Tuesday’s game was the shooting woes of a few players. Trailing 50-46 late in the third quarter, the Lobos trio of Ahlise Hurst, LaTora Duff and Autumn Watts were a combined 0-for-15 from the field.
Hurst recovered to score eight points and grab seven rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a veteran Fresno State lineup led by the Cavinder twins, Hanna and Haley. The MWC’s player of the year, Haley Cavinder had 22 points while center Maddi Utti had 17 points and a dozen rebounds.
The Bulldogs finished the game on a 7-2 run and erased a 53-50 deficit entering the fourth quarter.
With a few days to spare, the Lobos will return home and try to remain calm over a fate that is no longer in their hands.
They’ll also have a chance to get in a few workouts in The Pit, the place where they nailed down the MWC’s regular season title late last week.
“You know, there’s people that fail in life,” Bradbury said. “It’s because they don’t ever want to have this feeling, OK? So if you never try or you never really invest in something, when you get beat you really don’t get beat, so it doesn’t hurt. We don’t mind; we don’t like it, but we’re willing to have this feeling because when you really invest you also have that feeling that we had on Friday night.”
LOBOS NOTES
End of the line: The Mountain West men’s tournament starts Wednesday afternoon and Lobos fans everywhere know what that means.
As the No. 11 seed courtesy of a last-place finish in the regular season, UNM is facing long odds to extend its season into Thursday’s quarterfinals at the Thomas & Mack.
The Lobos (6-15) will play No. 6 seed Fresno State at 5 p.m. Wednesday in what could be the final game of Paul Weir as UNM’s head coach.
He was summarily dismissed by the school earlier this month, ending a four-year run that never resulted in a 20-win season or a trip to the postseason.
All-MWC: Lobos senior Makuach Maluach was named third-team all-conference in voting by the league’s coaches Tuesday.