Lobos 4-0 in MWC action

Beynon scores 25 in win over Wolf Pack

RENO, Nev. — When first-year coach Mike Bradbury said his Lobos had to “gut out” a 69-63 win at Mountain West Conference foe Nevada Saturday, he was referencing more than Jayda Bovero’s stomach virus.

Cherise Beynon scored a gamehigh 25 points, and New Mexico’s women’s basketball team (8-6 overall) is 4-0 in league play for the first time since 1998-99 in the Western Athletic Conference.

Despite UNM bursting out to a 27-11 first-quarter lead behind hotshooting Mykiel Burleson, the win over the Wolf Pack was as hardearned as the final score would indicate, Bradbury suggested.

Bovero played despite contracting a stomach virus that had her throwing up Friday night and Saturday morning. Emily Lines missed the game after suffering a “non-contact” injury at practice, and Alex Lapeyrolerie (concussion

protocol) didn’t make the trip.

“I’m really, really proud of our kids,” Bradbury said. “For Jayda to play as long and as well as she did was amazing. That girl was really sick.”

Freshman Burleson scored all but two of her 18 points in the first quarter. Bovero stuck it out for 35 minutes and scored 10 points.

Jaisa Nunn and Kianna Keller shared game-highs in rebounds with 12, as the Lobos won the battle on the glass 52-37. But those two and Richelle van der Keijl combined for only 10 points, necessitating UNM’s perimeter offense to get it going.

“That really put in on Cherise, Mykiel and Jayda to carry us,” said Bradbury.”They got us off to a great start and after that we really just gutted it out.”

Terae Briggs’ 16 points led Nevada (6-9, 0-4). Los Lunas High product Teige Zeller went scoreless