Coaches usually don’t like resorting to a zone defense.
At least UNM women’s head basketball coach Don Flanagan doesn’t. Had Flanagan not mentioned it, no one would have known, watching the Lobos freeze out No. 20 TCU, 60-53.
The UNM defense held the Horned Frogs to their season-low field-goal percentage (29.8) and scoring output of the season, pulling the Lobos (13-7, 5-3 MWC) within a half game of first place in the Mountain West Conference.
“We mixed up our defenses,” Flanagan said. “We went a zone press and had a man-to-man. There at the end we were in a zone-press on a make and a man-to-man on a miss. Sometimes they weren’t sure what we were in. So that was pretty successful.”
From the start, it appeared it would be a defensive struggle.
Both teams showed a zone look, each forcing the other into two shot-clock violations in the first half. When the offenses did score, it was in streaks.
“I was going to stay with a zone this time because of their personnel,” Flanagan said “They just have a lot of talented kids that are difficult to guard.”
The Lobos darted to a quick 11-6 lead in the first seven minutes. The Horned Frogs countered with an 11-2 run of their own, until Lobo forward Eileen Weissmann, who finished with a career-high 17 points, converted a three-point play off a foul on a layup. From there, the Lobos went on a 9-2 run to end the first half with the Lobos leading 21-19.
In the first half, TCU (15-5, 5-3 MWC) held the Lobos to a 20.7 percent field-goal range and a 12.5 percent 3-point percentage.
Credit Amanda Best, Jessica Kielpinski and Sara Halasz, who combined to go 5-of-25, throughout the game.
Point guard Amy Beggin helped offset Best, Kielpinski and Halasz’s shooting woes. Beggin finished with 19 points, most off of four 3-pointers.
“(On offense), I think we just needed to calm down a little bit,” Beggin said. “We were going too fast, making some mistakes that we really didn’t need to make and just not making our shots.”
Flanagan cited some wild 3-pointers, but also gave credit to TCU’s zone defense. TCU abandoned the zone early in the second half.
“They helped us by changing defense by going from a zone to a man (in the second half),” Flanagan said. “One of the things with a zone — with a coach — is coaches don’t really like zones. And as soon as (the offense) hits a 3, that is usually, ‘I’m out of it.’”
TCU head coach Jeff Mittie said some mistakes and a few key Lobo shots coaxed him out of a defense that worked well in the first half.
“They had trouble with our zone in the first half,” Mittie said. “We mixed up a couple things in the first half. I think if you look back, we made the switch after we made some mistakes, when we trapped and didn’t rotate to Beggin. She made us pay in the corner.”
Alternately, the Lobos befuddled TCU from the perimeter and inside the paint.
When TCU closed off the outside, the Lobos went in. They scored 14 of their next 15 points inside the lane, but led only 39-37 with 8:57 to go in the game.
“Once we get those easy baskets, they have to sag in a little bit, so it opens it back up for the 3,” Beggin said.
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Again, when TCU closed off the interior, the Lobos went out. They scored their next 12 points from beyond the arc, giving them their largest lead, 53-44, with four minutes left. It seemed Flanagan was always a step ahead of Mittie.
Nonetheless, TCU hung around, never trailing by more than nine points and pulling to within four late in the game.
With 10 seconds left, the Lobos leading by four and TCU running out of chances, the Horned Frogs needed a quick foul.
Off the inbound, Kielpinski — who finished the game with 9 rebounds, six assists and five points — flopped to the hard wood off a Horned Frog foul, enticing the official into calling an intentional foul.
Mittie was unhappy with the call and gave the Lobos two more free throws after receiving a technical foul.
Dodging talk of the officiating, Mittie said The Pit gave the Lobos added energy.
“I think this crowd gives them energy — the players, not the officials,” Mittie said. “How we handle those things — that is up to us.”
