The women’s basketball team couldn’t put a layup away soon enough to beat the Sooners.
The team lost to No. 13 Oklahoma 58-56 after junior guard Caroline Durbin missed a potentially game-winning 3-pointer with three seconds left. The rebound fell to junior guard Jourdan Erskine, who missed a layup to tie the game as time ran out.
Despite the loss, Erskine said the game was better than previous ones.
“I just really wanted to get this win,” she said. “So I wanted to step up my game and play that big five role. This is definitely a stepping stone.”
Erskine led the team with 14 rebounds and was the only player able to use her height at the post position to work against the Sooner centers.
Even though the team is now 0-3, head coach Yvonne Sanchez said she was not disappointed with the loss because the team fought until the end.
“They played hard,” she said. “I told them at the beginning of the year, ‘If you guys play hard, that’s what I ask of you. If you put yourself in a position to win, that’s what we ask of you as a staff,’ and they did both of those things.”
The Lobos were on fire in the first half, going 6-10 from 3-point range. Durbin went 3-3 behind the arc on her way to a game-high 16 points.
UNM shot 53.6 percent from the field in the first half and was leading by as many as 12 points, but took an eight point lead into halftime.
In the second half, the Sooners began to play full-court press defense, causing the Lobos to turnover the ball on multiple occasions as Oklahoma began to chip away at UNM’s lead by using its dominance down low.
The Sooners had 34 points in the paint to the Lobos’ 14.
Oklahoma scored 25 points off of UNM’s 23 turnovers, and Sanchez said that’s something the team needs to work on.
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“That’s been our Achilles’ heel,” she said. “We just have to take care of the ball a little bit and that’s my job. Until we figure it out, teams are going to pressure us.”
With 4:31 left in the game, the Sooners took a 52-51 lead after two free throws from Sharane Campbell. The lead was the first for the Sooners since they had 17:29 left in the first half.
Sanchez said she could see the game changing in the Sooners’ favor in the second half.
“I think we took a couple of bad shots and they got a couple of transition baskets and the momentum kind of shifted,” she said. “We took the No. 13 team down to the wire and we are going to find a way to win these games.”
With 1:43 left, the Lobos retook the lead after a Durbin jump shot gave them a 56-55 lead, but it was the last time the Lobos would be leading in the game.
Senior guard Porche Torrance said the game shows that the Lobos are better than their 0-3 record.
“This shows that we have a lot of heart within us and keep working hard and get ready for the game on Tuesday,” she said. “It’s a tough loss, but we have to keep our heads high. We fought hard until the end. Each play, we were aggressive.”
