The Lobo women’s basketball team trailed big at the half and, although it picked up the pace in the second half, wasn’t able to complete the comeback bid and fell to UNLV Wednesday evening.
New Mexico (12-10, 7-4 MW) entered the locker room down 16 points. The team played better in the second half, but the deficit proved too much to overcome as UNLV (15-7, 6-4 MW) took a 61-52 victory in WisePies Arena aka The Pit.
The Lobos saw three players score in double digits against the Rebels. Junior guard Cherise Beynon led the way with 20 points on 8-of-17 shooting from the field, while also bringing down nine rebounds for a near double-double.
It was Beynon’s ninth game this season scoring 20 or more points in a game. UNLV earned a season sweep over UNM and she said not focusing on the little things is a big reason why.
“I don't think we pay enough attention to details,” Beynon said. “Like I said, we defended them well, but we were told to rebound. They have good offensive rebounders, and since we didn't do that off the jump, they got a lot of second-chance points.”
Senior Richelle van der Keijl did her job on the glass, securing a game-high 12 rebounds, but the other Lobos combined for just 25, well below their season average. Van der Keijl also had an efficient night scoring, posting 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting in the game.
Freshman guard Mykiel Burleson scored 11 points for the Lobos, but had an off shooting night, going just 3-of-12 from the floor.
The first quarter didn't produce much for the Lobos on offense, with UNLV’s defense forcing the Lobos to take bad shots. It was tied 2-2 early on, but UNLV got the better and more effective shots in the quarter, outscoring the Lobos 17-4 in the ensuing minutes to go up 19-6 entering the second quarter.
After an early 5-0 run in the first two minutes of the second quarter, the Lobos were forced to take a timeout to try and regroup. After the short hiatus, the Lobos were able to trim the deficit to 10 points, 25-15, with Beynon scoring five points in the second.
But after the Lobos gained some confidence in their offense, UNLV once again locked them up on defense to take a 16 point halftime lead, 33-17.
Head coach Mike Bradbury recognized that his team got off to a slow start, but praised his team’s efforts in the latter half of the game.
“We got off to a little bit of a slow start there,” Bradbury said. “They kind of shocked us a little bit – very similar to what happened in Vegas. They kind of stunned us there in the first quarter, and it was kind of tough to recover from that. Although I'll give our kids credit – we battled back.”
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In the first half, the Lobos shot a disappointing 7-of-28 from the field, including going just 2-of-14 from beyond the arc.
Only five Lobos scored in the first half and no player had more than five points, with Beynon and Burleson both reaching the mark in the opening frame.
On the other hand, UNLV shot 35.3 percent in the first half, with Dakota Gonzalez scoring nine points to lead all scorers.
The third quarter started out on a high note for the Lobos, going on a 9-0 run in a little over three minutes in, to close the gap to 33-26. But UNLV found its pace and got the lead back up to as much as 11.
Both Beynon and van der Keijl played great for the Lobos in the third, combining for 21 of the Lobos’ 24 points in the quarter. Again the Lobos pushed the pace on offense and finished the quarter out on a 10-0 run to enter the fourth quarter to trim UNLV’s lead by four, 45-41.
A big three from Beynon started out the fourth quarter, closing the gap to one point, 45-44. But that was the closest the Lobos would get.
UNLV slowly grew its lead, forcing the Lobos to foul in the final seconds of the game. The Rebels sank all six of their free throw attempts in the final minute, helping them push past the Lobos 61-52.
Beynon recognized that for the Lobos to be good in the future, they need to readjust without sophomore Jaisa Nunn.
“We all just have to pick up the energy and what Jaisa [brought] to the table and replace it,” Beynon said. “There's no excuses.”
As a team, the Lobos shot 32.2 percent from the field and 17.2 percent from beyond the arc.
The Lobos were able to out-work UNLV in the low-post, by scoring 26 of its 61 points in the paint.
But UNLV’s aggressive approach on both sides of the ball helped them out-rebound the Lobos 46-37.
Up next for the Lobos is an away game at San Jose State on Saturday, Feb. 4 at 3 p.m. – a Mountain West team they have yet to face this season.
Matthew Narvaiz is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers women's basketball and baseball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @matt_narvaiz
