Team greases up to win after rusty beginning

by Steven Fernandez

Daily Lobo

Apparently, all the UNM women's basketball team needed was a few minutes to shake off the rust on Friday.

UNM started off shaky on offense, but finally began firing on all cylinders in a 75-48 beating of Fort Lewis College in an exhibition game.

Head coach Don Flanagan said the team simply had to adjust to playing its first game of the season.

"I'm hoping that," he said. "I thought our shot selection at times was a little hasty. We were hurrying and taking too many easy opportunities. That's something we'll work on."

To start out the game, the Lobos could not buy a shot and made sloppy passes to find themselves with an early deficit.

With more than five minutes gone in the game, UNM barely managed five points. The Lobos trailed the Skyhawks 7-5 until Julie Briody nailed a 3-pointer to put UNM up 8-7 with 14:52 remaining in the first half.

Fort Lewis proved it was there to put up a fight however, and went on an 8-2 run to lead 15-10 with 11:45 remaining.

Then the Lobos woke up.

UNM went on a hot streak on offense, played some shut-down defense, and went on a run of its own.

Trailing 20-17, the Lobos outscored the Skyhawks 15-0 to take a 32-20 lead with 1:52 remaining in the half. During the tail end of that stretch, sophomore Dionne Marsh hit her first shot after starting 0-of-6 from the field.

Senior Judy Vogt said the team was able to relax and play its style of basketball, which was key to the 15-0 run.

"We settled down, started running our offense," she said. "We started hitting shots. It just took some time getting used to the crowd and everything."

The Lobos closed out the half with junior Timi E-Nunu stealing a pass and running down the court for a layup just before time expired, bringing the announced crowd of 8,269 in The Pit to its feet.

UNM went into halftime with a 38-24 lead and never looked back.

With back-to-back threes by Briody and junior Katie Montgomery, the Lobos stretched the lead to 46-26 with 17:31 remaining in the second half.

UNM did not let up, and a field goal by freshman Rachel Majewski put the Lobos up 61-33 with 8:05 remaining. In the second half, Fort Lewis was never able to get any real momentum going, and it was clear UNM was in control of the game.

Flanagan didn't take the lead as an indication to rest his starters though. Montgomery came in and drilled a three with 3:02 left in the game to put the Lobos up 70-44.

Montgomery led all scorers with 16 points. The guard also added four assists, three steals and three rebounds.

Montgomery said she was happy to finally play a real game instead of just playing her teammates in practice.

"I was real excited," she said. "I mean we've been going against each other for so long. It was nice to play someone else."

Many of the players gave credit to their defensive effort in the first half. Montgomery said they were able to keep the game close early, and hold the Fort Lewis offense down in the second half.

With a size advantage, UNM was able to put up 34 points in the paint compared to just 14 for Fort Lewis. The Lobos also had a 22-12 advantage in second-chance points.

"We were a lot bigger than them, so we wanted to get inside a lot and give it to our post," Montgomery said. "That's very important to go on a run."