The UNM women’s basketball team said goodbye to its two seniors — Amanda Best and Jessica Kielpinski — who played in their final home game Tuesday.
Best scored 10 points and Kielpinski chipped in seven, but it wasn’t enough to beat league-leading Brigham Young.
The Cougars rained on the Lobos’ parade with a 65-49 road win on senior night in The Pit.
“It’s an emotional loss for us,” Kielpinski said. “Just realizing it’s your last game, I think that I put a little more pressure on myself to play well. It was just another game, and I should have kept my composure a little better.”
UNM kept up with BYU’s offense for the first 15 minutes of the game, playing stingy defense and holding the Cougars to 6-of-22 shooting in the opening minutes.
But then BYU went on a hot streak from long range, closing out the first half with six-straight 3s and heading into the locker room with a 31-21 lead.
“I thought we were about half a step late contesting those 3s,” head coach Don Flanagan said. “I give them credit. They executed their shots, and they were finding the bottom of the net. But there’s no excuse. We’ve got to get out there to contest those shots faster.”
After the break, the Lobos’ defense, which switched from the zone to man-to-man to better guard against the sharp-shooting Cougars, had difficulty inside against 6-foot-7-inch BYU freshman Jennifer Hamson, who towered above Lobo defenders.
Hamson finished the game with six second-half points to spark an 11-2 BYU run in the second half. The Cougars ended the game shooting 11-of-18 from behind the arc.
“We were playing their drive a little more,” Best said. “They had the size advantage in the paint. But we should have put a little more effort getting out on those shooters. Once someone hits one 3, you have to recognize that that person is a shooter. Some people weren’t realizing that and weren’t contesting those shots well enough.”
Corianne Fraughton-Wood paced BYU with a game-high 22 points, while Mindy Bonham added 13.
The Lobos’ offense was led by freshman Jasmine Patterson who notched 10 points, and sophomore Caroline Durbin chipped in eight.
With the win, the Cougars improve to 22-7 overall and 14-1 in Mountain West Conference action. UNM drops to 10-17 overall and 4-11 in conference.
“BYU is the most disciplined and talented team that we have in the Mountain West,” Flanagan said. “They showed us why they are leading the conference. They run their offense very, very well. They’ve been together a long time, and that’s evident by the way that they play basketball.”
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Up next, the Lobos hit the road for a contest against Air Force on Saturday in Colorado Springs, Colo. UNM has lost two in a row.
Best said at this point in the season, it’s time to focus and get back on the winning side of things.
“This is it,” she said. “We’ve got to get it together. We can’t let these losses be excuses — oh well, we played better. No. Now, we have to put it all together and start getting the wins.”
*Women’s basketball vs. Air Force
Saturday, noon
Colorado Springs, Colo.
SCORE BOX:
BYU: 65
UNM: 49*
