Late basket, steal propel Lobo women
Anderson leads way as UNM tops Fresno State
For one night at least, Canyon, Texas, was home sweet home.
Shaiquel McGruder’s driving layup with 2.4 seconds left and an ensuing steal by Ahlise Hurst gave the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team a thrilling 82-80 victory over Fresno State on Thursday night.
McGruder’s basket capped an entertaining, back-and-forth game that featured eight ties and 20 lead changes. Antonia Anderson scored a team-high 16 points for UNM, which had five players in double figures. Hanna Cavinder scored 20 points for Fresno State.
The Lobos (7-1, 4-1 Mountain West) were technically the home team for the game at Canyon’s West Texas A&M University because New Mexico’s coronavirus restrictions do not allow its teams to play at home. It was UNM’s first home game of the season.
The deciding basket came after UNM earned a defensive stop with the score tied at 80 and 5.4 seconds remaining. Lobos coach Mike Bradbury called a timeout and set up an inbounds play that got McGruder the ball just outside of the free-throw line. The junior forward quickly drove past her defender and banked in the goahead shot.
“Shai’s normally our fifth option on offense,” Bradbury said, “but she was our best option on that play. She was quicker than her defender and that was our biggest mismatch.
She made it count, too.”
Fresno State (8-6, 6-3) had a final possession with 2.4 seconds remaining, but Hurst deflected and then intercepted Bree Delaney’s inbounds pass as time expired.
“Ahlise was outstanding defensively,” Bradbury said, “and I thought our guards did a great job overall. Fresno is by far the most talented offensive team in our league. All you can do is try to contest everything and for the most part I thought we did that.”
UNM prevailed despite an unusually cold night (6-for-30) from
3-point range. The Lobos came into the game leading the MWC and ranked fourth nationally in made 3-pointers per game, but the Bulldogs made 11 to UNM’s six Thursday.
“I actually told them to stop looking for 3s at halftime,” Bradbury said, “which is not something I say very often. We started looking for AT (Anderson) and Shai inside and our guards started focusing on driving the ball.
We couldn’t hit 3s but we made a really high percentage on 2s.”
The Lobos led 38-34 at halftime but the Bulldogs pulled even at 44 after Haley Cavinder hit a 3-pointer and her twin sister, Hanna, followed with a layup. The Cavinders, who rank 1-2 in MWC scoring, combined for 36 points but were 13-for-34 from the field.
The teams effectively traded leads for most of the second half, with the Bulldogs taking a 78-76 advantage on Aly Gamez’s layup with 1:47 left. Jaedyn De La Cerda hit four staight free throws to put UNM back in front before Maddi Utti’s tying jumper with 50 seconds left set up the tense finish.
Hurst finished with 15 points for the Lobos, while McGruder and De La Cerda scored 14 apiece, and LaTascya Duff added 13. Fresno State outrebounded UNM 46-35, but the Lobos forced 16 turnovers and committed just seven.
The teams meet again Saturday at 11 a.m. to conclude the twogame series.