Wyoming came out flatter than the Great Plains.
And the UNM women's basketball team lassoed the Cowgirls, turning in a 63-45 victory in its season finale at The Pit on Saturday.
The Lobos had the game lucked up in the opening six minutes of the first half after wheeling to an 18-2 lead, but UNM routinely took off plays in the second half.
"We played better in the second 20 minutes, but the outcome of the game was determined in the first 20 minutes," Cowgirls' head coach Joe Legerski said.
Back-to-back 3s by Eileen Weissmann, coupled with two jumpers from Amanda Adamson, burned the Cowgirls early. Amy Beggin added five points during that six-minute span, including a 3-pointer that pushed the lead to 17-2, before Angela Hartill added a free throw to put the Lobos up 18-2 with 14 minutes.
UNM sprinted to a 22-point lead with seven minutes left before intermission, while the Cowgirls relied on freebies to supplement their 14 first-half points.
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Of Wyoming's 14 points, six came from the charity stripe. The Cowgirls managed only five first-half field goals and went 7:42 without making a shot, particularly from beyond the arc, where Wyoming finished 0-of-15 for the game.
"That's who we are," Legerski said. "We have to shoot the ball well from the perimeter. We're not a big, strong, physical team. We started rushing some shots. And then we started hesitating. We didn't know whether to shoot the ball or put it on the floor."
The fledgling Pokes were better off putting it on the floor, but they never figured it out.
Dating back to 1996, the Pokes have won only once in 13 appearances at The Pit.
"I've been down here several times and walked out with a loss," Legerski said.
"Three-point shooting and free-throw shooting was low. And when you have that, I understand our focus is not there. And when you ask, 'Why isn't your focus there?' - the atmosphere here is tremendous. Maybe one of the best home-court advantages in the country."
Head coach Don Flanagan said the Lobos coasted in the second half.
"They were disturbing me a little bit in the second half," he said. "We're going to go to a tournament where you can't make some errors or, at least, you have to be aware of situations. It's really important in tournament play that you're aware of situations."
Point- and hustle-wise, Wyoming outplayed UNM in half No. 2, outscoring the Lobos 29-26. The Lobos seemed to have their minds on an opening-round date with Air Force.
With Saturday's win, the Lobos cemented the No. 4 seed and will face the No. 9 Falcons, who concluded the season winless in conference play.
"One of the things you have to do with Air Force is not take them lightly," Flanagan said. "It doesn't matter if they haven't won a game in conference; they're going to play hard. I'm cautioning our players to understand, 'Don't get all excited, because we're playing Air Force.'"
While this is the time of year where teams' bubbles are bursting, the Lobos seem to be enveloped in a feel-good bubble of invincibility.
"I feel like we're playing our best right now," Beggin said.
But they sure didn't display it on Saturday, even though they won by 18 points.
If starting conference play 5-3 and tailing off in the second half to finish 4-4 is the Lobos' best basketball, that's troubling.
UNM's lackluster second half against the Pokes highlights those concerns.
At times, UNM was too passive on the offensive end, which resulted in bad shots with the shot clock winding down. Wyoming also outworked the Lobos in the second half.
Still, Hartill said the Lobos have the experience of last year's improbable run to the championship.
In the 2008 MWC Tournament, UNM strung together three straight wins, including a three-point win over SDSU in the MWC Tournament Championship, to win its second straight tournament championship and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
"We know it's the time of year where all the teams are peaking, and we know that we have to play our best," she said. "This is what it all comes down to. I don't know about the pressure part. We have to play our game. We have to play up to our abilities."
Of course, Brandi Kimble and Dionne Marsh were on the team last year, orchestrating much of the Lobos' magical run. In three games, all wins, Marsh and Kimble combined for 87 points. Both had 20 plus points in the MWC Tournament final against SDSU. Also, keep in mind that the Lobos were the beneficiary of some unlikely upsets last year, with winless Colorado State upending No. 1 seed Utah in the quarterfinals. In the final, UNM also faced a lower-seeded team in No. 6 SDSU.
And this year, because the MWC opted to change bracket pairings, the Lobos will have to play two more games than the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, Utah and SDSU.
"That's what we like," Beggin said. "We like games. And a lot of people are like, 'It's going to be hard. You guys are going to be tired.' But in that championship game, you just play on adrenaline."
Before they can get there, though, Flanagan said the Lobos have to play a full 40 minutes, not just 20 like UNM did on Saturday.
The two seniors, Hartill and
Adamson, didn't have much time to think about the finality of their college careers on Senior Day.
"It will sink in later," Hartill said.
And if the duo wants to prolong the inevitable, they'll need to replicate the magic of their predecessors.
"We have to find a way to get through it," Adamson said. "As a team, we can only get on each other and keep pushing each other."
