The UNM women's basketball team whipped itself back into winning form Sunday at The Pit with a 75-63 victory over Mountain West Conference foe TCU.
The win propelled the Lobos to 12-1 at home on the season and boosted the team to 4-1 in MWC play after a disappointing offensive output against San Diego State on Wednesday.
"I don't think we shot real well early on," head coach Don Flanagan said. "We had some people nervous shooting early on, and we need to get over that. But Amy (Beggin) played real well down the stretch; Angela (Hartill) starting playing better, and Georonika (Jackson) played the best game of her life."
In what was a conference game to determine third place in the MWC for the moment, Jackson helped lift UNM over TCU with a team-high 23 points.
"I help my team any way I can," Jackson said.
TCU guard Helena Sverrisdottir led all scorers with 25 points.
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Perhaps Sverrisdottir's biggest service to the Horned Frogs was her 10-of-10 free throws and her aptitude to find an answer every time UNM made a play.
"The thing about Sverrisdottir - I couldn't pronounce her name before, and now she gets 25 and I can pronounce her name - what she does, if you have a guard on her, she will take you down low and post you up," Flanagan said. "You put a post on her, what she'll do is drive on you. She is just a smart, smart player."
TCU and Sverrisdottir, however, weren't enough to stop UNM down the stretch.
Hartill played big in the second half, scoring 12 of her 14 points and finished the game with seven rebounds and two assists.
But it wasn't really Hartill's
numbers that beat TCU. It was her hustle and ability to never give up on plays.
Most notably, with less than five minutes left in the game, Hartill drove in the key and, with no open shot, found Jessica Kielpinski under the basket for a quick layup.
Less than a minute later, Hartill had her shot blocked by a TCU defender. Hartill recovered her own batted shot and found Amanda Adamson open for a quick 2-point jumper. The score put the Lobos up 69-57 with 4:06 left in the game.
"(Coach Flanagan) basically just said I needed to relax, get my shot and my head in the game," Hartill said. "That's just what I tried to do, and luckily it worked."
Amy Beggin finished second
behind Jackson's 23 points, putting up 15. She led the Lobos with eight rebounds and seven assists.
"It was good to get a win at home. Hopefully, (this) starts a new streak at home," Hartill said. "We definitely needed this, especially after not playing very well against San Diego State. I don't think we played very well today, but we came out with a win, and that is all that matters."
BOX
Women's basketball at Colorado State
Wednesday
Fort Collins, Colo.
7 p.m.
