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Last season, the UNM women’s basketball team suffered more than its fair share of injuries.
The damages hit early when redshirt junior Sara Halasz tore her ACL at the Lobo Howl. During the third game of the season, redshirt freshman Whitney Johnson blew out her ACL. Redshirt junior Deeva Vaughn and senior Jourdan Erskine were in and out of the lineup with various injuries throughout the year.
Prior to the start of the last season, the Lobos also lost several players when former head coach Don Flanagan resigned.
At times, the Lobos were forced to play with only six players, which led to UNM finishing 11-20 on the season.
Current head coach Yvonne Sanchez said her first season in charge was odd, not because of the turnover, but because of the multitude of injuries.
“Last year was kind of an anomaly … in a Division I program you rarely ever see what happened to us,” she said. “It was unfortunate, but they made do with what they had.”
Sanchez said last year’s injury woes were ultimately beneficial to the team because it gave the team better chemistry.
“They really got tougher, they really did,” she said. “I don’t think anything can shock them anymore. The newcomers have to get that same intensity, and some of them are.”
Senior Caroline Durbin, who was First Team All-Mountain West last year, said the team is better off with the added time on the court.
“It was rough, but looking back, it probably was a good experience to get all that playing time,” she said.
At Friday’s Lobo Howl, Sanchez made it a priority to minimize the chance of injuries by taking out the scrimmage portion of the event. Instead, the Lobos practiced drills and danced to “Thriller,” “Macarena” and “Tootsee Roll.”
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Not only are the Lobos healthy, they are looking to build off last season’s stunning MWC tournament run. In the first round, UNM defeated UNLV 61-58 to become the first No. 7 seed in MWC tournament history to defeat a No. 2 seed. In the quarterfinals, UNM hung on to beat Boise State 51-50, becoming the first No. 7 seed to make it to the title game. But in the championship round, the Lobos ran out of steam and lost to SDSU 57-43.
Sanchez said she was proud of her team but hates any type of moral victories.
“It’s a great thing for these kids this year because it’s unfinished business — we want to get back to that spot, and it might be our only TV opportunity,” she said. “I think everybody felt good by overachieving, you could say. Everybody felt good and they gave everything they had.”
The Lobos do not have any television games this year unless they make it back to the MWC tournament finals again.
UNM lost four seniors to graduation in Lauren Taylor, Nikki Nelson, Ashley Rhoades and Porche Torrance. Torrance was named Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year and led the conference in rebounding, averaging 8.9 per game.
The team has seven new players including five freshmen, and Sanchez said the team will miss Torrance the most because she was such a dominant post player.
“We’ll be fine,” she said. “Porche was a terrific player for us inside, so someone has to step up there.”
