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UNM Women's Basketball Non-Conference Schedule

Women's basketball: Four more years for Coach Sanchez

The deal, signed by Sanchez and UNM Athletics Director Paul Krebs back in April, will net the New Mexico women’s basketball coach an annual salary of more than $266,000 for each of the four years.

“It’s been done for a couple of months now,” Sanchez said. “It definitely feels good to be here longer.”

Sanchez had a rough start in her first three years (39-53). However, in her contract year, Sanchez took her team to the championship round of the Mountain West Tournament.

Sanchez also captured New Mexico’s first postseason win since 2010 despite losing team captain and senior Ebony Walker due to off-court issues. Sanchez’s team collected 14 Mountain West victories during the regular season — the most of any team in New Mexico’s history.

“We’ve done a great job building (this program) back,” Sanchez said. “We want great kids out there, and we have that.”

Non-conference schedule released

Sanchez did not have to wait for the paperwork to finally become official, as the Lobos released its 2015-16 non-conference schedule on June 12. Sanchez drafted a schedule that will not be nearly as competitive as last year’s, which forced UNM into a 1-7 start — four games of which were against ranked teams.

Sanchez said this schedule is not a light one, even though the big named schools that filled last year’s pre-conference schedule are not on the list.

“It’s a good schedule again,” Sanchez said. “They don’t have to be known teams, or even big-named teams.”

In her fifth year leading the Lobos, Sanchez created a schedule featuring a home-and-home game with Rio Grande Rivals NMSU. The Lobos fell 70-59 the only time the two teams linked up last year.

The Aggies are not the only team on the non-conference schedule that UNM will be familiar with. The Lobos will head to El Paso to take on UTEP after a 72-57 home win. That win against the Miners sparked a 12-game home winning streak for the Lobos in the 2014-2015 season.

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Before conference play, UNM will travel to Minnesota and SMU, which will be a homecoming for two senior starters Bryce Owens and Khadijah Shumpert. Shumpert will get a chance to play in her home state of Minnesota, while Owens will make an appearance in front of her hometown of Dallas. Both games will take place in the month of December.

UTEP, SMU, NMSU and Minnesota are the only games for which UNM will be away from WisePies Arena, aka The Pit. The Lobos will have eight home games in the non-conference schedule, not including the two exhibition games in front of the UNM faithful.

“We like the fact that we have more home games than road games, obviously,” Sanchez said. “It’s going to be a good year.”

Liam Cary-Eaves is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at assistantsports@dailylobo.com or on twitter @Liam_CE.

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