UNM women remain hot, win sixth in a row
Duff twins combine for 46 vs. Fresno St.
The University of New Mexico women’s basketball team finished with a flourish Tuesday night.
In a game that effectively mirrored their Mountain West Conference regular season, the Lobos sputtered early then found another gear in an 88-68 victory over Fresno State in Fresno, California.
UNM trailed 28-16 after an uninspired first quarter, then outscored the Bulldogs 72-40 the rest of the way. Twins LaTascya and LaTora Duff put on a show, combining for 46 points and 13 3-pointers. LaTascya was 8-for10 from long range and scored 27 points, while LaTora hit 5-of-8 from the 3-point arc and scored 19 points.
“The twins got ’em,” Lobos coach Mike Bradbury said in a postgame phone interview. “That was as good as they’ve played all season. I didn’t think Tay was ever going to miss.”
UNM won its sixth straight game to finish 20-11 overall, 12-6 in MWC play after a 2-4 league start. The Lobos finished in a three-way tie for third place with Colorado State and San Diego State and, because of conference tiebreakers, will be the No. 4 seed for next week’s Mountain West tournament.
The Lobos will face No. 5 San Diego State in Monday’s second round at 3:30 p.m. in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Winning 20 games and 12-6 in conference, I’ll take that,” Bradbury said. “I think we’re playing good basketball at the end of the season and that’s the goal. We’re the 4 seed, we’ll see what we can do with it.”
If nothing else, the Lobos will go into the conference tournament hot. They sizzled from 3-point range Tuesday, going 16-for-25 (64%). It was their second straight game hitting 16 3s.
“We knew they could shoot the 3,” Fresno State coach Jaime White said, “but they shot it well even for them. Kudos to New Mexico.”
It was difficult to see the UNM’s strong performance coming in the first quarter, when the Bulldogs (10-21, 3-15) hit four 3-pointers and cashed in two three-point plays on their way to a 28-16 lead.
“In the first quarter our defense was about as bad as it can be,” Bradbury said. “From that point on, though, I thought we defended pretty well.”
UNM led 44-39 at halftime, stretched it to 65-53 in the third quarter and steadily pulled away. Viané Cumber scored 12 of her 14 points in the second half, while Shaiquel McGruder scored 10 of her 12 points after halftime.
As for the MWC tournament, New Mexico and San Diego State split their regular-season series with each team winning at home.
Asked about facing SDSU, Bradbury laughed. “Do I have a choice?” he asked. “That’s who we’ve got. We’ll come home and get ready to face them.”