Essentially, it was the run that never ended.
Northern Arizona tumbled from the get-go as the UNM women’s basketball team just kept going and going and going, easily holding the Lumberjacks to their lowest point output of the season.
The Lobos (3-1 overall) motored to a 72-40 win on Tuesday at The Pit, dropping the Lumberjacks to 0-5 in the season.
The Lobos roared to the early first-half lead, earmarked by two three-point plays, which gave UNM a 12-0 cushion with 15:44 left to go in the half. The remaining 34:16 was a stat-padding session for the Lobos.
“We started out really fast,” said head coach Don Flanagan. “If you’ve got a 20-point lead at halftime, a lot of times they’ll come back. I’m worried that in the second half, it’s going to be even. If you’re up by 20 in the first half, you’re probably not going to win the second half by 20, but you don’t want to have it even.”
No worries. Be happy, coach. The Lobos continued to bully the Lumberjacks in the second half, outscoring them 32-22.
Most importantly, UNM strait-jacketed NAU’s leading scorer Amy Patton, while holding NAU’s second-leading scorer Lauren Hoisington to six points.
“We pretty much chased (Patton) all over the place and made life difficult for her,” Flanagan said. “She’s a nice player. She just never got off.”
Credit forward Amanda Best for putting together a stalwart effort on the Lumberjacks’ guard.
Best flanked Patton every square inch of the way, holding her to just six points, about 14 points under her season average of 20.8.
“(It was about) getting over the screens — you’re battling this person,” said Best, who added 12 points, three rebounds and two assists in the game. “People are coming after you. I liked it a lot. I took the initiative to do well on her tonight.”
Despite having a pillowy cushion, guard Amy Beggin said it wasn’t difficult to maintain the level of energy UNM came out with initially.
“You only have 20 or 30 games in a season. You want to take advantage of every opportunity you can,” she said. “We wanted to jump the gun today, and we got a good start. There’s the game within the game. You’re not necessarily thinking about the final score but the little things you want to do in between.”
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That “game within the game” included the Lobos homing in on other elements to keep them semi-interested. Flanagan said the team set a goal to keep the Lumberjacks to 51 points or less. Check. UNM also wanted to limit NAU to 10 offensive rebounds. Unfortunately for the Lobos, they gave up 11.
Northern Arizona made sure none of it mattered.
When the Lumberjacks weren’t missing shots — which wasn’t often; NAU shot under 40 percent from the field for the first time this season (27 percent) — they were completely oblivious to the shot clock.
At the 15:06 mark in the second half, Northern Arizona played round robin with the ball, before dribbling out the shot clock.
It was a moot point. UNM was already up 49-20 by that time and led by as much as 26 at one point during the game.
Beggin, one of three Lobos to finish in double figures, led with a game-high 15 points in just 24 minutes of play, down from the 40 minutes she had in the 70-56 loss to Oklahoma State last week.
Flanagan said he wants to preserve Beggin — who had minor offseason surgery on her ankle — for the season.
“She’s hobbled a little bit,” he said. “So we wanted to get some rest for her.”
Lauren Taylor sprinkled in 11 points as the Lobos cruised. Sara Halasz led the Lobos in rebounds, wrangling 10. Every player on UNM’s roster played at least two, except Jordan Unverzagt and Emily Stark who didn’t score.
