Staff Report
The Lobos' chances of winning the Mountain West Conference Championship faded away in the final minutes Thursday.
The UNM women's basketball team's offense sputtered against the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in a 70-59 loss in Las Vegas, snapping the Lobos' eight-game winning streak.
After leading 51-48 with 10:30 remaining in the game, the Rebels went on a roll, while the Lobos struggled to generate any offense the rest of the game.
Sequoia Holmes led UNLV with 22 points and five steals. Latosha Pace added 14 points for the Rebels. Faye Muller grabbed 13 rebounds.
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Dionne Marsh and Julie Briody led UNM with 17 points each. Marsh also had nine rebounds and four blocks. Katie Montgomery chipped in 12 points for the Lobos.
With the loss, UNM drops to 20-8 overall and 10-5 in the MWC. UNLV improves to 13-14 overall and 7-8 in conference.
A win would have secured the Lobos a No. 2 seed in the MWC Tournament, but at 10-5, they fall into a four-way tie with Wyoming, Texas Christian and Utah.
UNM holds the tiebreaker over those schools and can still clinch the No. 2 seed with a win Saturday at San Diego State, who is 5-10 in the conference and 12-14 overall.
Inaccurate shooting hurt the Lobos in Thursday's loss. UNM connected on just 38 percent of its field-goal attempts while the Rebels shot 47 percent, including 55 percent from 3-point range.
The Lobos also struggled from the free-throw line, going 13-of-23 from the stripe. They got just five points from the bench and scored zero fast-break points. UNLV received 24 points from its bench and had 10 fast-break points.
Women's
basketball at
San Diego State
Saturday, 1 p.m.
San Diego, Calif.
