It was supposed to be a game of redemption for the UNM women’s basketball team.
And it was going to be the defense that would provide a spark to put the Lobos back on track toward contending for the Mountain West Conference regular-season championship.
But Utah derailed the Lobos in The Pit on Saturday with a 52-49 victory, UNM’s fourth straight loss to the Utes on Bob King Court and its second straight loss after reeling off three wins in a row against conference top dogs BYU, TCU and San Diego State.
Although the Lobos played a near-perfect defensive game, it was a lack of offensive production that sealed the Lobos’ tomb.
Head coach Don Flanagan said he doesn’t understand why his team can’t drain shots, especially open shots.
He said for the second straight game it has been the Lobos’ Achilles’ heel.
“Our defense is good enough to win, our offense isn’t good enough to win,” Flanagan said. “We’re getting decent shots and we’re shooting more than our opponents. We have to be able to make shots and I thought that we defended well enough to win.”
The Lobos struggled without their leading scorer and floor general, Amy Beggin.
Beggin, who averages 13.5 points per game, did not play against Utah because of a head injury she suffered Wednesday against UNLV.
It was the first game Beggin missed in her career, snapping a consecutive streak of 124 games.
Georonika Jackson, who scored 11 points against the Utes, said it was difficult for the Lobos without Beggin on the floor.
“We knew playing without Amy, that some of us would have to step up,” Jackson said. “(We had to) hit some shots and play some good defense and Amy is a big part of this team, but we just couldn’t hit shots at the end.”
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This was yet another game that UNM led at halftime, and the Lobos couldn’t close out the contest.
The Lobos only hit 23.1 percent of their shots in the second half, just 6-of-26.
At the other end, the Utes seemed smarter and took higher-percentage shots, resulting in a 40 percent second-half field goal clip, even though the Lobos took 15 more shots in the game than did the Utes.
UNM’s defense kept Utah forward Kalee Whipple in check for the entire game.
Whipple looked uncomfortable and forced several shots against the swarming Lobo defense.
Whipple did go 6-of-7 from the free-throw line and converted two big attempts from the charity stripe with 13.9 seconds left in the game to put Utah up by three.
Jackson missed a last second 3-point attempt that could have sent the game into overtime.
“It’s hard for me to figure out, as far as getting them more confident shooting better,” Flanagan said. “We just haven’t had anybody, and I don’t say anybody ever, but of the close games, we haven’t had anyone step and not get a shot in. Of course, missing Amy, you have to think that we played a pretty decent game, because we could have had fewer turnovers and another 3-point shooter.”
*Women’s Basketball at Wyoming
Wednesday 7 p.m.
Laramie, Wyo.*
