UNM women lose slugfest
UNLV earns a physical decision in the Pit
The University of New Mexico Lobos are going to need some extra lunch money.
UNLV continued to play the bully against UNM’s women’s basketball team Wednesday night. The Rebels came into the Lobos’ backyard (Dreamstyle Arena) and snuffed out UNM’s 13-game home winning streak with a chippy 68-66 victory.
It was UNLV’s second straight win at the Pit and fourth straight in the series. The Rebels did not manage to silence an announced crowd of 5,786, but they certainly frustrated the Lobos and their fans with their aggressive, physical style.
“That’s how they play everybody,” UNM’s Cherise Beynon said. “They’re just a really tough team. I thought we played tough in the first half but we weren’t focused coming out in the third quarter and it cost us.”
The Lobos nearly managed to pull a rabbit out of their collective hat in the fourth quarter, trimming an eight-point deficit to 68-66 on two Jaisa Nunn free throws with 4.8 seconds left. UNLV’s Katie Powell then missed two foul shots with 4.4
seconds remaining, but UNM had no more timeouts and Beynon’s off-balance 3-point try at the horn was well off the mark.
The Lobos had several opportunities to tie things late but simply couldn’t hit open shots when they needed them. Tesha Buck and Alex Lapeyrolerie went a combined 1 for 12 from 3-point range in the second half. Buck missed her last seven attempts, including an open shot that could have tied the score with 1:05 left.
“Tesha’s a great shooter and we have confidence that she’ll make them,” Lobo coach Mike Bradbury said. “We didn’t shoot well as a team in the second half, but I felt like the first 5 minutes of the third quarter were the difference. UNLV played harder than we did, got every rebound and changed the whole momentum.”
UNM (16-4, 4-3) led 40-32 at halftime, shooting 50 percent from the field including 7 of 15 from 3-point range. The Lobos bumped the lead to 42-32 on a basket by Nunn, who racked up her 10th doubledouble of the season with 15 points and 13 rebounds.
But UNLV (10-8, 4-1) dominated the next 8 minutes. Powell scored twice in the post and hit one of four Rebel 3-pointers during a 24-5 tear that gave the visitors a 56-47 lead with 1:12 left in the quarter.
The suddenly flustered Lobos missed 10 straight shots and turned the ball over four times during the run.
“It seemed like we panicked there for a second when things got tight,” Bradbury said. “Tesha and Alex took some quick (3-point shots) when UNLV was making its run and things kind of got away from us.”
Lapeyrolerie, who paced the Lobos with 19 points, finally stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer. UNM trailed 58-52 entering the fourth quarter and made more than enough defensive stops to give itself a comeback opportunity. UNLV scored just 10 points in the final 10 minutes.
But the Lobos couldn’t find enough offense to finish the job. The Rebels’ 24-15 rebounding advantage in the second half played a major role as UNM did not score a fastbreak point after halftime and struggled against UNLV’s half-court defense. The Lobos shot 22 percent in the second half, 3 for 17 from 3-point range.
Brooke Johnson finished with 19 points, and Nikki Wheatley had 13 points, nine rebounds and seven assists after missing five games because of injury.