Low-scoring game? Try no scoring.
On Tuesday at The Pit, the UNM women's basketball team and BYU combined to shoot 19.6 percent from the floor (10-51) in the first half. In spite of nausea-inducing play, the Lobos (18-6 overall, 7-4 MWC) won 52-37.
"It was a physical, defensive game," head coach Don Flanagan said. "And we knew that's what it was going to be."
For the better part of the game, both teams seemed adamant about outdoing last year's affair, in which the two squads combined for 79 points. BYU won that game 41-38 in The Pit.
This time, the Cougars were dreadful.
BYU went a little over eight minutes without scoring. The Cougs finally got on the board when Shawnee Slade hit one of two free throws to put the score at 8-1 UNM. Until Cassie King laid one in with 9:32 left in the first half, BYU was 0-17 from the field.
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UNM jumped out to an early 10-1 lead, but impatience at the offensive end by the Lobos allowed the Cougars back into the game, and at the half, it was 18-11 Lobos.
"We were just fired up and ready to score," Beggin said. "When we play BYU, we don't score that many points. So, it's kind of like, when you get your opportunity to score, you want it. But like coach said, we should've passed the ball around a little bit more."
Must have been the pink uniforms the Lobos were sporting in support of breast cancer awareness, Beggin said.
Saying she wasn't partial to pink, she joked: "Amanda Adamson liked it a lot. She might not give hers up."
Still, despite scoring less than 60 points, UNM notched the win. Before Tuesday, the Lobos were 4-24 all time and 0-6 this season when scoring less than 60 points.
"I thought we were impatient on offense," Flanagan said. "And consequently, we should've had a lot more opportunities, especially in the first half. We're running motion, and usually in motion, you want to have four or five passes. If we got to two, we were doing well."
The Lobos piggybacked Amy Beggin and Angela Hartill in the first half. The duo combined for all of UNM's six field goals before the break. Seventeen - nine from Hartill and eight from Beggin - of the Lobos' 18 first-half points belong to them.
"I think they're starting to just look for each other a little bit too much," Flanagan said. "I think that's something that we need to get away from. It's really important that you don't just have a two-player team. Although, last year, we had a two-player team. It's not something I'm promoting."
Hartill finished with a game-high 18, while Beggin had 17. No Cougars scored in double-figures. In the second half, the Lobos got a much-needed boost from Eileen Wiessmann. She chipped in eight points on 2-of-3 shooting.
"Eileen played really well, and she had a huge offensive rebound at the end. She just does so many little things that don't show up on the stat sheet. She has to guard a lot of post players, and she is 5'9", 5'10". She doesn't always get the most points or get the most rebounds, but she's a vital part of our team."
Determined to get its 3-point shooting going early, the Lobos launched 11 in the first half. And UNM was equally as chilly from deep (3-of-11). But they worked it around more in the second half and had 12 points in the paint, as opposed to half of that in the first half.
"I didn't think we overshot the 3," Flanagan said. I think we shot too early, though. I thought we could've shot the 3 at a little later part in the shot clock."
