Lobo men lose, women win
Utah State freshman star Queta dominates men’s game; bench is key for UNM women
Flipping the script was Wednesday night’s theme for the UNM women’s basketball team.
After watching a fourth-quarter lead evaporate four days earlier in a frustrating loss at Fresno State, the Lobos turned things completely around in Wednesday’s home game against Utah State.
Paced by a stellar performance from its bench, New Mexico dominated the final 16 minutes and walked up Dream-style Arena’s ramp with a satisfying 74-56 win.
Trailing 43-38 with 6:30 left in the third quarter, UNM (21-4, 11-3 Mountain West) found another gear and the Aggies (11-14, 6-8) simply couldn’t keep up. The Lobos’ bench — led by Jaedyn De La Cerda and Antonia Anderson — outscored Utah State’s reserves 32-5.
De La Cerda hit four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points, while Anderson racked up 13 points and seven rebounds.
“Jaedyn and A.T. (Anderson) can clearly score when they get minutes,” UNM coach Mike Bradbury said. “The reason they’re getting minutes is because they’re playing well defensively now. A.T. has been playing really well for several weeks, and Jaedyn played great defense and gave us a huge spark tonight.”
UNM’s defense was largely missing in action for much of the first half and nowhere to be seen early in the third quarter. Utah State’s Rachel Brewster, who scored a game-high 20 points, cashed in the first three baskets of the third quarter — all layups — and Steph Gorman netted a 3-pointer to give the Aggies a five-point lead.
An announced crowd of 4,749 began to get restless, but Brewster did not score again.
“We left (Brewster) open a lot in the first three quarters,” Anderson said. “Obviously, we shouldn’t have. We finally started contesting her.”
Utah State had a 31-25 advantage on the boards through three quarters, which did not please Bradbury.
“They kind of came out and knocked the wind out of us,” he said. “That team always rebounds like crazy and for 26 minutes that’s exactly what they did.” UNM had an emphatic answer. Five players scored in double figures for New Mexico and all five got involved in its decisive late run. Jayla Everett, Aisia Robertson, Anderson and De La Cerda nailed 3-pointers as the Lobos rallied to take a 55-50 lead at the end of three quarters.
Jaisa Nunn then scored seven points including an open 3 early in the fourth. UNM outscored USU 14-2 over the first six minutes of the final quarter to build its lead to a comfortable 69-52.
Nunn led the Lobos with 15 points
despite persistent foul trouble, while Everett and Robertson scored 12 points apiece. UNM went 9 for 24 from 3-point range, shaking off its icy 2-for-19 outing at Fresno State.
De La Cerda, who finished 4-of- 8 from long range, said she felt the outburst coming.
“Sometimes my warmups are really good and I just feel like my shots will go in,” she said. “Tonight was one of those nights. It felt really good.”
Bradbury said he was encouraged by the way his team shook off its early struggles.
“We had some adversity with Jaisa in foul trouble and Utah State making some runs,” Bradbury said, “but our response was really good. At Fresno State it was bad, which is why we lost that game. ”