The University of New Mexico women’s basketball team could have taken one step closer toward making it back to the top of the Mountain West by trying to take down Boise State on Wednesday in hopes of extending its winning streak to three games.
But despite having three players — senior guards Cherise Beynon and Tesha Buck and junior post Jaisa Nunn score over 20 points each against the Broncos — the win didn’t come as hoped.
Instead, the two teams duked it out and BSU got the end result they wanted—a 91-85 victory at Taco Bell Arena.
Both Nunn and Buck had 25 points apiece, while Beynon scored 24 points, which combined for 74 of the team’s 85 points. It still, however, wasn’t enough.
The Broncos, led by junior guard Marta Hermida’s game-high 26 points, put an a great offensive performance for their home crowd. They shot 53.2 percent in the game, while also hitting 7-of-15 3-pointers.
Sophomore guard Riley Lupfer who had 20 points, as well as two other Broncos, scored in double figures.
But it wasn’t always all BSU. The Lobos, after a slow start to the first quarter, ended up grabbing a 19-16 lead at the end of it.
And in the second quarter, after a Beynon basket with 7:37 left before halftime, the Lobos got their lead up to as many as nine points.
Slowly but surely, though, the Broncos climbed their way back into it. The Lobos had a one-point lead with under a minute before the half, but a last-second basket from BSU freshman forward Tess Amundsen gave the Broncos a 41-40 lead before going into the locker room.
In the third quarter, the game remained a back-and-forth affair with the lead switching nine different times. But UNM finished out the frame with a 61-60 lead.
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After things were tied up at 67 points apiece, the Broncos nailed a 3 to take the lead at the 6:36 mark of the fourth quarter — a lead they would never surrender.
By the end of it, despite Buck hitting an off-balanced 3-pointer with 13 seconds to go to make it a three point game in favor of BSU, the Broncos went big at the charity stripe, nailing three of their last four free throws, to win 91-85.
Nunn had 10 rebounds on top of her 25 points, to give her another double-double. Beynon had six assists and five rebounds, and Buck had six assists and six rebounds.
As a team, UNM shot 42 percent from the field.
Up next for the Lobos is a 2 p.m Saturday Feb. 10 matchup at home against Air Force.
Matthew Narvaiz is a senior sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @matt_narvaiz.
