Not even the 7,400 fans at the Sanchez sellout game could help the women’s basketball team to victory.
Junior guard Caroline Durbin was the only player in double digits. She scored a career-high 29 points for UNM in its last-minute 52-50 loss to Wyoming on Saturday at The Pit.
Head coach Yvonne Sanchez said she was disappointed that no one on the team helped Durbin out.
“No one else helped her on the offensive end,” Sanchez said. “We just had nobody else help Caroline and that’s tough, she seemed like she was the only one scoring.”
The Lobos started the game on an 11-2 run in the first 10 minutes and went into the half with a 28-20 lead.
Durbin went 7-11 shooting for 17 points in the first half, and she said she felt like she couldn’t miss.
“I just had a hot hand,” she said. “I felt like almost anything I shot up there was going to go in.”
In the second half UNM took as much as a 10-point lead, but with only eight healthy players available to play, fatigue set in quickly.
In a three minute span Wyoming cut down the lead to tie the game with 10:19 left.
Sanchez said those three minutes led to the Lobos’ ultimate defeat and she should have called a timeout to end the run.
“I was trying to preserve (the timeout) and we just backed down and let them do whatever they wanted,” she said. “They caught our eight or 10-point lead, and by that time it was too late.”
The game went back and forth in the final minutes, and a layup from Durbin tied the game at 49 with 1:15 left in the game.
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On the ensuing possession, Wyoming’s Chaundra Sewell made a layup to give Wyoming the lead, which they held to game’s end. Junior guard Jayme Jackson missed a chance to tie the game when her shot was blocked as time expired.
Senior forward Porche Torrance was the second-highest scorer with six points, and finished with 10 rebounds and seven blocks.
The Lobos, now 6-10, gave up 20 offensive rebounds and 48 total in the game. Sanchez said she was unhappy with how her team performed, especially when rebounding the ball.
“I’m disappointed in how we didn’t box out the entire game,” she said. “I’m just disappointed in the way we played down the stretch. It’s a game we could have won but you can say that all you want.”
Wyoming moves to 5-10 in the year and the Lobos are now 0-2 in the MWC after falling to Boise State in their first game. They travel to California to play San Diego State University tonight.
If UNM loses it will start conference play with three straight losses for the second straight season.
“It’s not what you want,” Sanchez said. “Last year we started 0-5 and that wasn’t fun and it doesn’t get any easier.”
