It came down to the final seconds, but New Mexico’s second-half surge fell just short in a 59-58 loss to San Jose State on Saturday.
The Lobos’ six-point second quarter on the road proved to be too big a hole to climb out of, yet UNM still managed to make the contest an intriguing one.
“You score six points in the second quarter, that’s just not going to cut it,” head coach Yvonne Sanchez said in her post game radio interview. “We didn’t come out with the same fire that we had in the first quarter.”
In Saturday’s game, UNM stormed back after intermission, outscoring the Spartans 36-28, but an unfortunate turnover in the closing seconds of the game proved to be the difference.
In the closing moments, Jaisa Nunn picked off an SJSU pass down low, but was unable secure the ball as Riana Byrd scooped up the Lobo turnover and put the ball in the net with less than a second left.
“Jaisa had it, they took it away from her and they made a layup,” Sanchez said. “We had the game in our grasp and we just didn’t finish it out.”
Forward Khadijah Shumpert recorded the game high in scoring with 14 points, adding eight boards and three steals to highlight her stat sheet.
Shumpert was just one of three Lobo players to pick off three passes as fellow seniors Bryce Owens and Alexa Chavez added three steals to their game totals, contributing to 23 total Spartan turnovers.
Though New Mexico was able to win the turnover ratio, only committing 15 as a team, Sanchez said her squad’s 24 fouls was a main culprit in the loss.
“We just fouled too many times ... We had 24 personal fouls,” Sanchez said. “You can’t get a team like this and put them at the free throw line over and over and expect to win a basketball game at their place.”
San Jose State (10-14, 8-5 MW) didn’t shoot particularly well from the charity stripe, only converting 18 of the team’s 28 attempts. Luckily for the Spartans, New Mexico wasn’t at its best from the free throw line only making 10 of 16 from the line.
Following a career night of 24 points on Wednesday against Utah State, guard Cherise Beynon’s hot hand came to an end on the road. She was only able to accumulate six points on a 2 of 11 shooting night.
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New Mexico will take on third place Boise State in the final game of its two-game road trip on Wednesday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Liam Cary-Eaves is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He covers volleyball, women’s basketball, and baseball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Liam_CE.
