For three quarters of the Saturday’s game against TCU, the women’s basketball team played some of its finest basketball, but the last quarter couldn’t have been any worse.
The Lobos lost to the Horned Frogs 63-52 on Senior Day in front of 7,333 fans, after blowing a double-digit lead with less than 14 minutes to play.
Sophomore guard Chinyere Nnaji’s jumper with 13:33 left in the game put the Lobos up 42-32 in a game UNM led most of the way.
“We just didn’t hit shots and score there down at the stretch, and they did,” head coach Yvonne Sanchez said.
Senior forward Porche Torrance picked up her fourth foul 20 seconds after Nnaji’s basket, and the game turned around.
“It’s hard to be as aggressive as you want to be without trying to foul out,” Torrance said. “That kind of got me in trouble early.”
Torrance was benched and her absence was felt on the offense.
Junior guard Jourdan Erskine’s layup with 10:23 left in a 46-39 game was the last field goal the Lobos would score for almost 10 minutes.
The Horned Frogs’ zone defense shut down the Lobos as they went on a 15-2 run to take a 54-48 lead off a Briesha Wynn layup with 1:56 left.
With 55 seconds left, Torrance made the team’s first field goal since the 10:23 mark, but it came too late.
“(TCU) kind of figured out what we were doing, (they) figured out what shooters we were trying to get open and we didn’t do a great job of just executing our offense,” junior guard Caroline Durbin said.
In the first half, it was the Durbin and Torrance show.
Durbin’s 3-pointer with 12:12 left in the first half gave her eight points early on as the Lobos held a 17-10 lead.
Then Torrance took over.
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The 6-foot, 1-inch forward scored three baskets and a layup in the final 10 minutes to give UNM a 28-25 lead at the half.
The two combined for 19 of the Lobos’ 28 first-half points; Durbin with eight, Torrance 11.
But in the second half, the team unraveled.
With senior Lauren Taylor out with an injury and only seven available players, the fatigue caught up with the team.
“We have a group of kids, they’re a little beat up and we just didn’t finish a 40-minute game,” Sanchez said.
Torrance led the Lobos with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Durbin added 13 points. Junior guard Jaime Jackson led the team with six assists.
The Lobos (9-18, 3-10 MWC) made 21-of-51 shots for the game for 41.2 percent.
Seniors Torrance, Taylor, Ashley Rhoades and Nikki Nelson were honored after the game in their last contest at The Pit.
With a coaching change, a departing recruiting class and a team hobbled by injuries, the group of seniors went through a lot, Sanchez said.
“It wasn’t anything they asked for, but I’m hoping their career is everything they’d hoped for,” Sanchez said.