by Steven Fernandez
Daily Lobo
The UNM women's basketball team stumbled out of the gate, picked itself up, and blazed to one of its biggest wins of the season.
After scoring nine points through the first 10 minutes of the game, the Lobos shifted into high gear, routing Texas Christian University 87-63 on Sunday at The Pit.
Head coach Don Flanagan said he couldn't imagine the team would score 78 points in the final 30 minutes.
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"The last few games we've been putting some numbers up there," he said. "I honestly attribute that to pushing the ball and shooting the open shot."
With the win, the Lobos improve to 18-6 on the season and 8-3 in the Mountain West Conference. UNM also extended its home-court conference winning streak to 33 games. TCU falls to 12-9 and 6-4.
The Lobos struggled on offense to open the first half, missing 10 of their first 14 field goal attempts while making sloppy passes. Trailing 10-9 with 9:55 left in the first half, Abbie Letz and Katie Montgomery hit back-to-back threes to help spark an offensive onslaught that carried UNM to another home victory.
Three-point shooting was one of the keys to the Lobos putting up an NBA-like score. As a team, UNM shot 50 percent from beyond the arc, connecting on 11-of-22 deep balls.
Letz said it is a huge asset for the team to be able to shoot from the outside so well, especially when so many players are capable of knocking down a big three.
"It's huge, because if they focus on Katie (Montgomery), Julie (Briody) is going to hit, if they focus on Julie, then Judy (Vogt) is going to hit," she said. "We have five people on the court at all times that are going to hurt you."
Letz was named player of the game after scoring a game-high 22 points while grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out four assists. The senior connected on 4-of-5 three-point attempts and gave the Lobos their first double-digit lead to open the second half after scoring five straight points.
Letz wasn't the only player to contribute, as four Lobo players finished with double-figure scoring. Briody put up 14 points, while Dionne Marsh and Montgomery finished with 12 points each.
In addition to hot three-point shooting, UNM was almost perfect from the free-throw line. The Lobos connected on 28-of-30 free throw attempts, good for 93 percent.
Letz said the team went into Sunday's game with revenge on its mind after losing at TCU 76-67 earlier in the season.
She said the team came out with extra energy in the second half, especially on the offensive end.
"I think we just kind of caught fire there in the second half. We just kept pushing it, and they seemed to get a little tired," Letz said.
For many games early in the season the Lobos had to depend on their defense to pull out some wins. After Sunday's 87-point performance, Briody said the team could rely more on their offense down the stretch.
"I don't think really all season we've had a great game where everybody shot well, and today I thought we shot really well," Briody said. "At this time of the year it's a huge confidence booster."
