A buzzer-beater jumper ended the Lobos’ hopes of advancing further in the Mountain West Tournament on Tuesday, March 7.
New Mexico (15-15, 10-8 MW) lost a heartbreaker on Tuesday afternoon to Boise State with the final score favoring the Broncos (23-7, 12-6 MW) 64-62 — the same score as the previous matchup between the two teams on Feb. 15. Boise State would go on to win the tournament after upsetting top-seeded Colorado State in a semifinals matchup.
Despite the loss, first-year head coach Mike Bradbury had nothing but praise for his team.
“The way our kids continued to bounce back and practice well and come out and play the next one and play the next one, that’s what made this group special,” Bradbury said. “We got down to bare bones in players. They continued to fight and put us in this position.”
And the Lobos did that throughout the game, especially on offense. Juniors Cherise Beynon and Alex Lapeyrolerie scored 37 of the Lobos’ 62 points.
Beynon’s stat line included a team-high 20 points, six assists and nine rebounds. Lapeyrolerie, meanwhile, scored 17 points on 7-for-21 shooting, while also logging four rebounds and two assists.
Although senior Richelle van der Keijl turned in a below-average performance by her standards with nine points, she did bring down a team-high 17 rebounds.
The first quarter started off on a Lapeyrolerie layup to quickly put the Lobos up 2-0. BSU would quickly answer on the next possession. The rest of the quarter was a tight-knit affair, with the Lobos getting the better end of the stick and going up 21-18 going into the second quarter.
The Lobos held a four-point lead midway through the third quarter, but the Broncos quickly went on a 7-0 run to go up 45-42 over the Lobos. UNM wouldn’t give up, though, going on a 6-0 run to go back on top. The quarter ended with the Lobos leading the Broncos, 49-47, heading into the last frame.
Again the fourth quarter was as tight as can be, with both teams trading shots, and it came down to the wire in the very last seconds.
The Lobos inbounded the ball to Beynon who pump-faked her shot and then sent it over to junior Jayda Bovero who sunk the game-tying 3-pointer with 3.2 seconds left.
However, the Broncos had another clutch play of their own. They inbounded the ball and brought it up the court quickly, as Brittney Pahukoa found some space and drained a buzzer-beater jumper to give the Broncos the 64-62 win at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Bradbury recognized that the Lobo fans in attendance at the game were a big part in making the game competitive.
“It’s the greatest thing because those people care and they care about women’s basketball,” Bradbury said. “It says 1,600 on here, I don’t know how accurate that is, but if that’s an accurate number, I’m going to say 1,550 were Lobos fans. The support – you’ve got to remember now, our men don’t play for two days. So these people came to watch our kids play.”
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.
