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The Nevada women’s basketball team will try to quickly forget its first-ever visit to The Pit.
The Lobos flattened the Wolf Pack 66-43, UNM’s largest margin of victory during Mountain West Conference play.
New Mexico had 12 of 14 players score and shot 50 percent from the field, compared to 25.9 percent for Nevada.
Head coach Yvonne Sanchez said the win met her expectations this late in the season.
“This feels good. For us to play everyone, make the most of our opportunities, play hard, and play great defense, it was a good game for us,” she said.
The Lobos limited the Wolf Pack to 18 points in the first half, which is the lowest point total allowed in the first half of the conference season for UNM. New Mexico continued to stifle Nevada’s offense in the second half by holding the Wolf Pack scoreless for the first 6:28, allowing a 17-0 run for the Lobos.
New Mexico had 48 points inside the paint, 33 bench points and 19 assists in the victory.
Sanchez said New Mexico’s selflessness was a key component offensively.
“It’s a good balance. When you have everyone score but two players, that’s neat,” she said. “Everyone looked for each other and still committed 20 turnovers, but they played hard.”
Freshman guard Bryce Owens provided six assists, two points and one rebound. The Lobos are 11-5 when Owens dishes out four or more assists.
The Lobos strung together seven blocks compared to their 2.8 blocks per-game average. The block total is the most since New Mexico lost versus UNLV 58-57 on Feb. 9.
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Junior forward Deeva Vaughn led New Mexico with 10 points, four rebounds, two steals and a block. Sophomore guard Antiesha Brown came off the bench and delivered seven points, a career-high 11 rebounds and two assists.
Brown said she had to remain aggressive in the paint, especially against Nevada’s 6-foot-7-inch sophomore center Mimi Mungedi who totaled 11 points and three blocks for the Wolf Pack (7-21, 2-13 MWC).
“I wanted to disrupt the game with offensive rebounds. Our posts did a great job of clearing out some of their posts, which allowed opportunities for the guards to grab a few boards,” Brown said.
With the win, New Mexico (15-13, 7-8) remains in fifth place behind San Diego State, Fresno State, Wyoming and UNLV.
The Nevada matchup was the second-to-last game at The Pit for seniors Caroline Durbin, Jourdan Erskine, Jayme Jackson and Chinyere Nnaji. But Sanchez said she has not pressured the team to win for the seniors.
“We never talked about winning for the seniors, but rather just playing hard for them. If they play hard, play smart, and play together then good things happen,” Sanchez said. “I learned from (former coach) Don Flanagan that if you play as hard as you can and leave it all on the court, that we’ll live with any result.”
