The UNM women's basketball team extended its winning streak over the New Mexico State Aggies to 15, with a 62-39 win at The Pit Sunday afternoon.
But the win wasn't supposed to be easy for UNM. The Aggies are led by seniors Princess Moore and Sinnamonn Garrett. Until Sunday's game Moore had an average of 16 points and seven rebounds per game and Garrett averaged 15 points per game. But the Lobos held them to only nine points a piece.
"I think this is the first year we've actually worried about losing to them," junior forward Lindsey Arndt said. "We were scouting them and their two best players had been playing really well."
UNM head coach Don Flanagan said he was pleased with the Lobos' defensive effort and play in the interior.
Arndt and senior Melissa Forest each had double-doubles, with 14 points and 12 rebounds, and 16 points and 10 rebounds, respectively.
UNM never trailed and gradually built a commanding 18-point lead in the first quarter, which was due to a lack of rebounding on the Aggies part. UNM doubled NMSU's 10 rebounds midway through the first period. UNM finished with 47 rebounds to NMSU's 31.
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The Aggies went cold in the second half of the first period and made only two shots in almost nine minutes of play. The Aggies were scoreless for more than five minutes, while UNM went on an eight-point run. The Lobos shot a below-average 40 percent and the Aggies made only 25 percent of their shots.
Garrett connected on only one of 11, to go into the locker room at intermission with two points. NMSU had only two assists in the first half.
With junior Mandi Moore back at the point guard position, the Lobos started the second half in the same dominant fashion, extending their lead to 24 with 10 minutes left to play. But UNM started to falter slightly and when the lead was cut to 14, Flanagan called for time.
He said in college no lead is too big and when he has the lead over a team, he wants to bury them.
"When I'm up by that much I like to be up by more," he said. "When the lead got down to 14 points there I was getting pretty upset with our team."
The Lobos got the momentum back in their favor and freshman Julie Briody put up two threes to give UNM its final 23-point advantage.
Flanagan said the break-out game by the post players serves as good preparation for Saturday's game against Arizona.
"Arizona's got a post player that's probably about the same size as Lindsey and Melissa together," he said.
Forest, speaking for herself and Arndt, said she is up to the challenge of defending 6-foot-5 Wildcat center, Shawntinice Polk.
"We're going to be playing one of the nation's best post players," Forest said. "So this was kind of a confidence builder. It's necessary for us to play well."
Tipoff against the Wildcats will be at 7 p.m. Saturday at The Pit.
