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Despite clear improvements on its shooting, the New Mexico women’s basketball team’s losing skid continued with an 85-53 loss against No. 16 Colorado on Saturday at The Pit.
UNM (1-3) has now dropped three games in a row, two of which were at home — something they hoped wouldn’t happen all year.
In the past three games the Lobos have faced two Big 12 teams in Texas Tech (3-1) and Texas (3-1), followed by CU (4-0).
“It’s been a tough stretch,” UNM head coach Yvonne Sanchez said. “We challenged our kids, and that’s OK … we just have to get better.”
The Lobos were missing two key players in the game against the Buffaloes: redshirt junior center Ebony Walker, who is out for the season with a torn Achilles’ tendon, and sophomore forward Khadijah Shumpert, who was unable to attend the game due to personal matters, according to Sanchez.
UNM’s defense is usually not the point of concern, but it struggled against the 16th team in the nation. In the first half the Buffaloes put on a shooting clinic, hitting 57.7 percent of their shots. Colorado hit an impressive 66.7 percent (8-12) on 3-point attempts, as well.
UNM led Colorado early in the game 9-6 before the Buffaloes hit two 3-pointers, providing the only tie and lead change of the game. CU guard Jasmine Sborov evened the game at nine apiece with her trey, which was her second of the game.
CU then took a 12-9 lead with 14:45 remaining in the first half after another deep shot, this time coming off the right hand of guard Ashley Wilson. The Buffs never wavered after that.
Sanchez said she didn’t want to get into a shootout because the Lobos do not have the firepower to match a team that shoots as well as CU. Though UNM didn’t shoot terribly at 38.9 percent (21-54), the Buffaloes’ offense was explosive.
“We’re not a high-scoring team,” Sanchez said. “We just aren’t.”
The game began to slip away from the Lobos at the end of the first half as UNM struggled to stay in contention. The Lobos came within nine after redshirt senior guard Sarah Halasz scored on a layup with 2:15 left.
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UNM wouldn’t be able to shrink the lead back down to single digits after a trey and a jumper by CU.
“You have to take the pain of the loss and bounce back,” Halasz said. “Defense and offense have to come together.”
Although Colorado was sinking an abundance of difficult shots, Halasz, who led UNM with 16 points, said that her squad tried not to get flustered when contesting such a powerful offense.
“You can’t just stop playing defense,” Halasz said. “Just keep getting a hand in their face and stopping the ball as much as you can.”
Colorado went off in the second half without shooting as well behind the arc as they had in the first. However, Colorado’s forward Jen Reese scored 10 of her 18 points in the second half, which was game-high. Four of her teammates also reached the double-digit mark.
The Buffaloes’ bench outscored UNM’s bench 36-14, as they built up to their biggest lead of 32 points with 1:07 remaining in the game.
“We didn’t have enough off the bench and we didn’t enough from our starters,” Sanchez said. “That’s a really bad combination for (facing) a team that is No. 16 in the country.”
