Aggies get even at the Pan Am
Lobos drop fourth consecutive game
LAS CRUCES — What a difference a buzzer-beater makes.
Tamera William’s long 3-pointer to beat the third-quarter buzzer effectively turned around Wednesday’s Rio Grande Rivalry rematch at the Pan American Center. It touched off a big fourth quarter that lifted host New Mexico State to a 77-70 women’s basketball win over New Mexico and a split of the season series.
“I just threw the ball up and hoped it would go in,” William said. “I don’t know what to say about that one.”
UNM (2-4) controlled most of the third quarter and led 57-53 when William launched her prayer from just inside the halfcourt stripe. The Aggies then opened the fourth quarter with an 11-2 run and never trailed again.
William finished with a gamebest 23 points and 12 rebounds and said effort was the biggest change for NMSU from the 84-55 Lobos win over the Aggies in Albuquerque earlier this season.
“We played our butts off,” she said.
Aggies coach Mark Trakh was in a jubilant mood afterward, facetiously taking credit for William’s game-changing shot.
“I called that, didn’t you hear me?” Trakh joked. “That’s play 59B. It’s amazing how often that half-court shot is open, too.”
While NMSU celebrated the win, the contest was something of a good-news, bad-news scenario for UNM, which dropped its fourth consecutive game. The upside was the Lobos played with far more intensity than they did in a home loss to St. Joseph’s last weekend in tournament play. The bad news was UNM couldn’t do enough to slow the Aggies’ fourth-quarter surge.
“We did play harder,” Lobos coach Mike Bradbury said. “Still not hard enough, but it was a step in the right direction.”
Bradbury agreed that William’s half-court prayer was a game-changer, though he didn’t believe it should have been.
“We’ve got to shake that off,” he said. “They threw one in, so what? It’s just three points. But it did seem to affect both teams.”
Post Richelle van der Keijl and point guard Cherise Beynon paced the Lobos with 22 and 21 points, respectively. Van der Keijl dominated the paint in the third quarter, scoring nine points as the visitors built a 57-49 lead. It dwindled quickly, however. The Aggies scored the final seven points of the period to trail just 57-56. William then followed her half-court shot with a conventional 3 to start NMSU’s 11-2 tear in the fourth.
Brooke Salas, who collected 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Aggies, hit two wide-open 3-pointers during the key stretch.
Beynon helped UNM get back into things, scoring six straight points at one juncture in the fourth. The Lobos trailed just 69-67 with 4:32 left.
It was 73-69 when Beynon picked up her fifth foul on an offensive call with 40 seconds remaining. The Aggies then put it away from the foul line with four straight makes.