Head coach Don Flanagan of the UNM women's basketball team said before the season that the one major concern he has with his team is its lack of outside shooting. His fears came to fruition on Sunday during the Lobos 62-53 loss to the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
Despite getting a spirited defensive effort that held the Rebels to under 40 percent shooting and 18 turnovers, UNM's dismal perimeter offensive showing doomed its chances of opening the Mountain West Conference with a win.
The Lobos hoisted up 29 shots from beyond the arc and only connected on four of them for a disgraceful 13.8 percent.
"We had great looks," Flanagan said. "How the heck can you win a game four-of-29? You can close your eyes and shoot four-of-29."
The 3-point attempts are two short of the team record. For the game, the Lobos shot 32.8 percent, a season-low.
"You gotta convert some shots," Flanagan said. "I am really surprised at that number. I didn't realize we shot 29 three's and were four-of-29. That's pretty horrible."
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Struggles from the outside for UNM are nothing new - the Lobos are shooting only 29 percent for the season.
The Rebels must have noted the Lobos' inept perimeter shooting because they played almost the entire game in a two-three zone, content on sagging down on star center Jordan Adams and daring UNM to beat them from the outside.
The strategy worked - Adams had two or three people guarding her much of the game, leaving the Lobo shooters wide open most of the time. But the perimeter players hurried many of their shots, struggling to get the ball into the basket.
"We didn't hit our threes and that really killed us (and) not letting Jordan get the ball inside," senior guard Molly McKinnon said.
Flanagan said the team settled for way too many outside shots instead of getting the ball inside more but gave some of the credit to the Rebels zone defense.
"I thought our looks were decent, but evidently they weren't decent because they weren't going in," he said.
The Lobos' struggles did not start right away as UNM hit three of its first four shots, including the first three of the game by McKinnon a minute and a half into the first half. But things went downhill from there as the Lobos only made six of their next 28 shots to finish the first half shooting 28 percent.
UNM looked hesitant to attack the basket and seemed content on passing the ball on the perimeter and taking long range jump shots.
During the second half, the Lobos attacked the basket and got the ball to Adams a little more. She scored 11 of her team-high 15 points in the second half. However, when the game got tight, so did UNM, as it could not get the big 3-pointer to go down to get the crowd riled up.
Adams made one 3-pointer midway through the second half, the only one out of 11 shots taken by the team.
Point guard Mandi Moore showed the freshman jitters in front of a nearly soldout crowd at the nationally televised game.
She did not hit a three in the game, finishing zero-for-seven and scoring one basket in 10 attempts from the field. Her teammates joined in her struggles as Adams, McKinnon and junior guard Chelsea Grear each hit on only one-of-five attempts from three.
Flanagan said the bad shooting became contagious after the early struggles.
"Especially when maybe the person you perceive as the best shooter misses a couple of shots in a row, then all of a sudden you are thinking about your shot," he said. "But really our shooting was so poor, we were fortunate to even be close."
