First-year head women’s basketball coach Yvonne Sanchez snagged her first rival win against New Mexico State in the Rio Grande Rivalry on Sunday.
With scores tied at 53, senior guard Lauren Taylor hit a free throw with 30 seconds left to take the lead, and the Lobo defense held on as UNM won 54-53 in front of 7,551 fans for Pack The Pit.
“It’s a huge win,” Sanchez said. “To get a one-point win in the tough situation we were in just speaks volumes. Hopefully they feel everything is turning around a bit.”
UNM went 20-45 shooting in the game, but started with only eight healthy players. The leading scorer, junior guard Caroline Durbin, started on the bench for the first time this season because of the flu.
Regardless, the Lobos started the game with a 10-0 run and held NMSU scoreless until 12:40 left in the first half.
Taylor led the team with 13 points and said the Lobos’ offense was perfect at the beginning of the game.
“We were playing motion really well,” she said. “They were getting lost in a lot of the screens and we played it really well.”
A late run by the Aggies closed the gap to a three-point difference, and the Lobos led 27-24 into half.
Much as they did in the first half, the Lobos dominated with a 14-4 run in the first six minutes of the second half for a 15-point lead.
With 10 minutes left, NMSU put UNM in a full-court press that led to four quick turnovers.
Sanchez said the team needs to figure out a way to limit its turnovers when the opposing team plays full-court press defense on them.
“That’s just our Achilles’ heel,” she said. “We still have to work on it. It’s one of those things like your shot: you’ve got to keep working on it. People are going to press us, so we have to make sure we solve it with something.”
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
NMSU had 25 points off of UNM’s 18 turnovers, and with 6:13 left the Aggies took their first lead, 48-47.
The Aggies led by four points with five minutes remaining, but the Lobos dwindled it down to a 53-53 tie with 30 seconds left.
Taylor got fouled bringing the ball up the court and hit one of two free throws, giving the Aggies the ball with 25 seconds left and a chance to win.
But the Lobo defense didn’t allow NMSU a shot, as senior forward Porche Torrance blocked NMSU’s Kaitlyn Soto’s layup as time ran out on the shot clock. The block was one of Torrance’s five in the game to go along with her seven steals and 10 points.
“They could have dropped their shoulders when they went up four,” Sanchez said. “We have dropped three games by three or less points. It kind of gets with your psyches sometimes when you do that.”
The Lobos are now 4-5. Taylor said it felt good to finally be on the winning side of a close game.
“We lost some of those other games by two or three, but we said ‘not this game, were getting this game,’ ” she said. “The last timeout we said ‘we are winning this thing. Whatever you have to do to get it done, we’re getting it done.’ ”
