The UNM women's basketball team once again relied on a stout defense in a 40-79 victory at The Pit on Wednesday.
The Lobos' discipline on defense was key to holding the Falcons offense in check, head coach Don Flanagan said.
"Obviously, we defended pretty well," he said. "They set a lot of screens, so we had to make sure we got over them. Defensively, we've been consistently good."
UNM improved to 14-11 overall and 6-6 in the Mountain West Conference. The defending MWC Tournament Champions have struggled this year but have regularly performed well on defense.
That was apparent again Wednesday.
In the first half, the Lobos shut down the Falcons offense early and often. Air Force's first field goal came at the 15:24 mark of the first half, and it didn't score again until 8:19 left until halftime.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
UNM finished the game with nine steals and forced 19 turnovers overall.
Junior transfer Amanda Adamson came off the bench to help out the Lobo defense and managed eight points and two steals in the game.
One way to gain minutes playing for Flanagan is to show effort on the defensive end, Adamson said.
"One of his biggest pushes in the game is defense," she said. "He says if you play defense, you're going to play on my team."
Senior forward Dionne Marsh led all scorers with 17 points and had a game-high eight rebounds - six of which came on the defensive end.
Even though getting a big win at home felt good, the Lobos know they have their hands full with No. 18 Utah on Saturday, Marsh said.
The Utes will enter The Pit this weekend with a 22-3 overall record and an 11-0 conference mark.
"They've been playing very well," Marsh said. "They've won, like, 17 games in a row. They just beat BYU the other day by a lot. We've played every team in this conference pretty close. It should be a good game on Saturday."
Utah's 17-game win streak is one behind Chattanooga for longest in the nation.
In their game earlier this season, the Lobos fell to the Utes 60-57.
Having kept a close game with Utah on the road should help the team's confidence, Flanagan said.
"We played them well up there," he said. "We shouldn't be afraid of them. We just have to keep playing hard and playing well and playing aggressively, and anything can happen."
The Lobos are ranked fifth in the conference and in their next two games will face conference-leading Utah and BYU, fourth in the conference standings.
Flanagan said it was a big win against the Falcons on Wednesday, and it should help them in the upcoming games leading to the MWC tournament.
"The most important thing right now is are we improving," he said. "Hopefully, we gained some confidence (Wednesday). Hopefully, we can turn it around a little bit a get a little run before we go in the tournament."
Women's basketball vs. Utah
Saturday, 1 p.m.
The Pit
