Senior guard Porche Torrance must’ve seen a ghost when the ball slipped from her grasp on an inbound play late in a two-possession game, adding another chapter to a season marked by errors.
“When you’re putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound, you’re trying to stop the bleeding and that’s what we’re trying to do,” said Yvonne Sanchez, the women’s basketball coach, on Saturday.
With only seven scholarship players on hand and nine healthy players on the bench, UNM tried to compete with UNLV.
Unfortunately, the Lobos fell about seven minutes short as the Rebels won 64-50 at The Pit, in front of 6,725 fans in a Mountain West Conference game.
The Lobos are now 0-4 in conference play, and 6-12 overall.
The spate of injuries started in the preseason, and the five wounded players huddled at the end of the bench. The list of available Lobos dropped from 10 when recent walk-on and volleyball standout Ashley Rhoades travelled to Colorado Springs for the U.S. national volleyball team tryouts.
Those absences forced Sanchez to use a seven-player rotation.
“We have to use what we have on the bench and we have to get them better,” Sanchez said. “You can get frustrated with it, but it’s not going to change.”
The Lobos made the patchwork rotation jive, and were down 47-41 with 7:30 to go in the game. The Lobos had a chance to make it a one-score game, but the Rebels forced UNM into four turnovers on its next five possessions, which led to nine points for UNLV.
“UNLV gave us an opportunity to hang around a little bit and we didn’t capitalize on that,” Sanchez said.
One of those turnovers was a steal by Mia Bell on an inbound from Torrance, with 4:58 left. That led to a 3-pointer from Jamie Smith, to make the lead 53-43. That started a streak of four straight threes by the Rebels to increase the margin to 62-47.
“Instead of down seven with the momentum and the fans on your side, you’re playing catch up with a short period of time,” Sanchez said. “That’s the stuff that we unfortunately haven’t avoided the last four games.”
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The Rebels forced UNM into 21 turnovers and scored 19 points off them as they improved to 15-5 this season and 3-1 in the Mountain West. UNLV took control of the game midway through the first half behind the play of Smith and center Markiell Styles. They combined for 17 first-half points, Smith leading the way with 11 on the strength of three threes.
The Lobos hit three of their first five shots to take a 9-3 lead and still held a 17-14 margin when Smith drained a 3-pointer that sparked an 11-2 run. UNLV built a 32-23 lead at the half.
“We were really in there trying hard, fighting and then they hit a three,” UNM senior guard Lauren Taylor said.
The Lobos, who didn’t score in the last 2:30 of the first half, continued the drought until 17:58 of the second on junior center Emily Stark’s layup. By that point, the Rebels led 38-25.
UNM rallied behind an 11-of-18 performance from the field in the second half. Stark’s basket started a 9-2 run and closed the gap to 40-32 on junior guard Jayme Jackson’s jumper with 13:05 left.
Smith and center Markiell Styles led the way for UNLV with 17 and 12 points, respectively.
UNLV dominated inside, scoring 32 points in the paint and took advantage of its size picking up 21 second-chance points off of 17 offensive rebounds.
Despite the 14-point loss for UNM, it had better field goal, 3-point and free-throw percentages than UNLV.
Taylor led the team in scoring with 13 points off the bench, 10 coming in the second half. Junior guard Caroline Durbin was the other Lobo in double-figures, with 10 points.
The Lobos now go on the road to face Colorado State and Texas Christian.
“Two games — we can go and win,” Sanchez said. “That’s my mindset, that’s our staff’s mindset and on Monday, that’s going to be the players’ mindset.”
Upcoming Games
Men’s
Wednesday, January 25th –
Colorado State
Saturday, January 28th –
TCU
Tuesday, January 31st –
@Air Force
Women’s
Wednesday, January 25th –
Colorado State
Tuesday, January 28th -
TCU
Saturday, January 31st –
Air Force
