New Mexico flexed its muscles from the bench on the way to an 83-43 rout over visiting Nicholls State on Tuesday night.
Two minutes into the first quarter, head coach Yvonne Sanchez had to resort to the backups after senior Khadijah Shumpert headed to the bench with two fouls. Sanchez didn’t need to call on her dominant force down low for the remainder of the first half.
The Lobos (3-1) played a total of 13 players, all who contributed over 11 minutes of playing time. All but one of the 13 who played put up at least one bucket as well.
Backup point guard Laneah Bryan introduced nine points to the contest on 50 percent shooting, snagging three steals and dishing out three as well. The guard said it shows how well the entire team can play as one.
“Everyone can get in there and do good things,” Bryan said. “It says a lot about our team and the strengths we have.”
However, there is still plenty of room to improve, Sanchez and Bryan both said. UNM shot 58.6 percent from the stripe, far below the team’s 75 percent goal. Sanchez said she has introduced sprints to practices following games the team doesn’t reach its goal.
“It just doesn’t make sense not to make free throws,” Sanchez said. “We shoot them every day and we shoot them a ton.”
The Lobos also turned the ball over far more than the squad would have liked. Although the team had a positive assist to turnover ratio, starting point guard Bryce Owens said that is something the team will need to continue to improve on.
“We played good but it wasn’t our best game,” Owens said. “We had 17 turnovers and 15 fouls at the end of the game.”
The amount of turnovers is not necessarily a huge concern at this point of the season, according to Sanchez. The head coach said she is glad the team is looking to get the ball in the hands of everyone on the court.
“I like the fact they’re finding each other but I think they’re trying to do a little bit too much,” Sanchez said. “We’ll clean those up but they’re not terrible turnovers, we just have to clean those up.”
Owens had one of those fouls and two of the team’s 17 turnovers on her way to the game-high 15 point showing. While Owens said it was good she was able to break out as the game’s leading scorer, it is not something the guard said she focuses on.
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“I am a point guard and I have to run the team but there are also options for me to score the ball,” Owens said. “I am not looking to score the ball every time I touch the ball but I am taking good shots.”
The senior captain also tallied six boards, snagged a steal, and dished out two assists in 21 minutes play against Nicholls State (1-2).
“We just have to keep doing what we did today and I think we did a lot of good things this game,” Bryan said. “If we can keep building off that and just keep getting better each game like coach says, I think it will be really good for us.”
Liam Cary-Eaves is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at assistantsports@dailylobo.com or on twitter @Liam_CE.
