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Despite a lopsided win in the first exhibition match, there are plenty of obvious kinks that need to be straightened out for the New Mexico women’s basketball team preseason.
Although UNM dominated New Mexico Highlands University 81-48, head coach Yvonne Sanchez said her team has a lot to work on.
“Twenty-one turnovers is unacceptable,” she said. “It’s not what we want to do in terms of playing basketball.”
Sanchez added that the 63.3 free-throw percentage that the Lobos shot was not what they’ve worked toward.
The opening series of the game showed that there is going to be a new style of play in the NCAA. The Cowgirls quickly ran into foul trouble before even taking the ball on offense.
The Lobos were awarded their first point of the game from the charity stripe, which proved to be a reoccurring theme as both teams spent a lot of time at the free throw line.
“I told them that they are going to call everything,” Sanchez said. “You saw that in the first 40 seconds of the game.”
NMHU fouled out two players during the exhibition match, with the Cowgirls’ junior guard Alice Pitts receiving more fouls (5) than minutes played (4).
The Lobos also found themselves susceptible to foul trouble as junior center Ebony Walker was only allotted 11 minutes of play before exceeding the five-foul mark.
The game started off with both teams looking rusty and uncomfortable. Senior guard Sarah Halasz said it was a good way to get the first game of the season behind them.
“Exhibitions are always a lesson,” Halasz said. “I’m pretty sure that we were all just excited and anxious.”
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UNM was able to find a groove when the Cowgirls tied the game up at 10 points. The foul trouble that NMHU fell into sparked a 13-0 run for the Lobos, who were able to hang on to their lead for the remainder of the game.
Taking advantage of turnovers and scoring off of fast breaks led the Lobos to their largest lead of the first half, pulling away 38-19 with just over 2:30 remaining.
NMHU was unable to capitalize on any of the 10 turnovers the Lobos coughed up in the first half. Sanchez said there were a few things in the game that she was impressed by.
“I did like our defense a lot more,” she said. “We had 52 rebounds and that is really good.”
Sanchez added that the Lobos may just have been in the right spots throughout the game. She said she wasn’t sure if she saw a lot of boxing out.
The second half continued to be a game of runs for the Lobos, capitalizing on the turnovers along with foul trouble that the Cowgirls just couldn’t avoid.
The Lobos allowed the Cowgirls to score the first bucket in the second half, and then went on an 11-0 run for a 49-22 lead.
UNM built a 70-35 lead with a little over 12 minutes left to play in the game, and finished the blowout victory with a final score of 81-48.
UNM’s redshirt junior guard Antiesha Brown received Player of the Game honors, scoring an abundance of her points off fast break scores and finishing the night with 23 points and eight rebounds.
“We can take a lot of learning points from this game,” Brown said. “We’re just playing too fast … not being a seasoned team yet.”
