by Andre van der Merwe
Daily Lobo
The UNM women's basketball team stunned Brigham Young University on Saturday by turning a 10-point deficit into a 74-49 victory.
The 25-point blowout by the No. 21 Lobos (21-8, 11-5 MWC) was their 35th consecutive win against conference teams at home. The 49 points scored by the No. 18 Cougars (23-4, 13-3 MWC) was the lowest point total BYU has put up this season.
The Lobos started out sluggish, while the Cougars were a golden 6-of-6 from the field and 3-of-3 from three-point land. At 15:40 in the first half, the Lobos were down by 10 points - their biggest deficit of the game - with the score 15-5.
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Head coach Don Flanagan said he is used to seeing his team come back from sloppy starts.
"We got behind early," Flanagan said. "That's our tradition this year. Then we decided we're going to play a little harder."
Even though UNM trailed by double digits, Flanagan said he had faith his team would win the game, especially because it was Senior Day.
"I didn't think there was any way that BYU was winning this game," Flanagan said. "I just didn't feel like the seniors would allow it to happen. I don't think anyone on the team was going to allow it to happen."
With 15:24 in the first half, the clock struck midnight for the Cougars. Senior Abbie Letz scored seven straight points that jump-started the Lobos' offense to a 35-7 run to end BYU's fairy tale. After Letz's single-handed run, she let her teammates take over.
Sophomore post Dionne Marsh helped propel the seniors to a win in their last regular season game at home by leading all scorers with 17 points. Next in scoring was junior Julie Briody, who had 16 points, a team-high eight rebounds and six assists. Senior Judy Vogt left the court on Senior Day perfect from the field, going 3-of-3. That's not bad, considering all of her shots were three-pointers.
Letz said the team played exceptionally, but it has more to offer if it can spread the ball around.
"I think we all were pretty focused tonight," Letz said. "We played really well and we still can play a lot better. Everyone else stepped up, and that's what we need. Everyone steps up, so no one has to take it all on their shoulders."
At the end of the first half, UNM was 7-of-10 from behind the arc and headed into the locker room up 40-24.
In the second half, it was more of the Briody and Marsh show, as the two helped put the game away. Senior Jana Francis chipped in with seven points and three assists for the game.
Freshman Rachel Majewski helped the Lobos reach their biggest lead of the game at 28 points, when she hit her second jumper of the night with 23 seconds left.
With the win, UNM grabbed the No. 3 seed for the MWC Tournament, which starts Tuesday. The Lobos will take on the No. 6-seeded University of Nevada-Las Vegas in their first-round game Wednesday.
Flanagan said other teams should be wary come tournament time if the Lobos can maintain their hot shooting hands and stifling defense.
"I thought just about everything we did, we did pretty well," Flanagan said. "We shot the ball pretty well. We passed the ball very well. I was pretty happy for the effort and the momentum it's going to give us for the tournament."
