With the hype surrounding the men’s basketball team, it would be easy to forget about women’s basketball’s Cinderella-story run in the MWC tournament.
UNM lost in the final to San Diego State on March 10 in Las Vegas, Nev., after winning back-to-back tournament games as a No. 7 seed to reach the final.
To put in perspective how improbable this run was, it’s best to start at the beginning.
Before the season started, first-year head coach Yvonne Sanchez already had her work cut out for her. After former head coach Don Flanagan resigned from the program last April, Sanchez took over after being the assistant at UNM for 11 years.
Eight players left the program; three to graduation and five women from the freshmen class transferred or quit the team. Sanchez had to quickly bring in players to fill the void, but some of them weren’t the quality of players needed to bring success to a Division I program.
To make matters worse, pre-season MWC player of the year Sara Halasz tore her ACL before the season started.
The year started off with three straight losses, including a two-point loss to No. 13 Oklahoma when UNM was winning for all but the last minute of the game. It got worse as injuries forced Sanchez to have as few as seven healthy players to choose from during games.
In December, to add depth to the squad, Sanchez recruited UNM senior volleyball player Ashley Rhoades and added freshman guard Jamie Parker.
When conference play began, the Lobos were 6-8 and had 10 healthy players. The team hoped for a better record.
But the Lobos were hit by injuries again and UNM lost six straight games in open conference play. They ended up going 3-11 in conference and went 9-19 during the regular season.
The team was led by junior guard Caroline Durbin and senior forward Porche Torrance, averaging 15 and 11.7 points per game, respectively. Durbin was named to first team All-MWC and Torrance was named the MWC defensive player of the year.
Luckily, Air Force had a worse record in conference play and the Lobos were awarded the seventh seed and took on No. 2 UNLV with a full roster for one of the first times this year.
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UNLV was playing at home but a majority of the fans were supporting UNM. Down nine with seven minutes left, the Lobos hit four straight 3-pointers and went on a 16-3 run to win.
During the regular season, UNM lost seven games by five points or fewer, and against No. 5 Boise State in the semifinal, it looked like it was going to be eight.
Again, UNM surprised everyone with a last-second block from Torrance to give them a 51-50 win and carry the Lobos to the final against No. 1 SDSU.
In the final, SDSU was the better team, but the Lobos continued to fight and were only down four in the second half. The Aztecs went on a late run to win 57-43.
This tournament embodies the Lobos’ season. After going 3-11 in conference, it would have been easy to quit in the first game of the tournament and just go home.
Down late in the first game, they could have given up, but they didn’t. In the second game, UNM could have lost on the final play but refused to. SDSU was the superior team in the final, but again the Lobos battled and refused to quit, just like they did all season.
Torrance averaged 15.6 points per game in the tournament, and Sanchez at one point said she was carrying the team and the rest were just along for the ride.
A huge amount of credit needs to be given to Torrance, Durbin and the rest of the Lobo team, but most importantly to Sanchez, who instilled a fighting spirit in her team who refused to quit.
The amount of adversity the team went though is more than Sanchez will see in her next five years combined at UNM, and with a spirit like that soon this team won’t be on the losing end of MWC tournament finals.
