The Lobo women's basketball team looked like a well-oiled machine throughout most of its match against the University of Texas El Paso Miners, taking a 79-66 home victory on Sunday afternoon.
The Lobos (4-5) seemed to feed off the positive energy the crowd of 4,596 exuded, especially early on.
The first quarter couldn't have gone much better for the Lobos. Senior center Richelle van der Keijl made UTEP (2-6) pay, as she dropped six points down low and continued to do so throughout the half.
Lobo guard Cherise Beynon also had a hot hand in the first quarter of play, scoring five points to help UNM go on top 20-12 at the end of the frame.
The play of the Lobos peaked in the second quarter. Lobo guard Mykiel Burleson hit a 3-pointer with four seconds left on the clock to send the Lobos into halftime with a comfortable 48-29 lead.
In one of the better shooting halves this season, the Lobos shot the ball at an impressive 51 percent clip.
The opening minutes of the third quarter saw the lead swell even more, with New Mexico going up by as much as 26 points.
Beynon — who had struggled at times this season — even scored eight points in the quarter’s opening two minutes. But UTEP went on a 6-0 run to close the gap 57-37 with about three minutes left in the third.
The teams traded shots for the remainder of the period, but UTEP was unable to get any real momentum going, and trailed 61-43 entering the fourth.
The Lobos have been susceptible to taking their foot off the gas pedal in the second half of games, and Sunday’s fourth quarter saw that trend continue.
UTEP closed strong, hitting four 3-pointers late, but New Mexico was able to withstand the late charge and seal the 79-66 win.
Head coach Mike Bradbury praised his team’s efforts early on, but went on to say that he noticed their play decline in the second half.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
“I think for two and a half quarters we were really good on both ends — offense and defense,” Bradbury said. “I think the last quarter and a half we lost our discipline a little bit and hopefully we can get that fixed this week in practice.”
Beynon’s performance was probably the most notable for the Lobos. She scored a game-high 24 points on 10-of-18 shooting to go along with seven assists and six rebounds.
Beynon said she was happy with her offensive efforts, but thought that she could've done things a little bit differently on the defensive side as she had four fouls for the game.
“I think I did pretty good,” Beynon said. “I think we're all just getting more shots in the gym now, because our last couple of games we've been shooting well.”
The reliable post presence van der Keijl scored 18 points against UTEP. Despite being the tallest player on the court, she had her hands full battling UTEP’s Tamara Seda, who scored 19 points.
Van der Keijl had high praise for UTEP's Seda, but said she wasn't going to back down either.
“Yeah, she was pretty tough to guard,” van der Keijl said. “If she scored, I needed to score too.”
Van der Keijl also brought down 12 rebounds to record a double-double on the night.
She and senior forward Kianna Keller had an old-fashioned block party. The two combined for six blocked shots, with van der Keijl batting away four and Keller swatting two, respectively.
Lobo guard Alex Lapeyrolerie showed signs of the player that led the team in scoring the first two games of the season. She ended up with 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting, going 3-of-7 from beyond the arc.
It was the most points she has scored in the last five games.
The Lobos showed a lot of improvement from its 69-65 loss to Minnesota in their previous game. They shot about 10 percentage points better (44 percent) from the field as a team, and saw a huge jump in 3-point shooting, going 34.5 percent from beyond the arc.
New Mexico used 22 second-chance points and 19 fast break points to outdistance UTEP, which registered 11 and eight in those categories, respectively.
The Lobos will end their four-game home stand when they host Eastern Illinois on Sunday with a 2 p.m. tipoff time. The game will be streamed on the Mountain West Network.
Matthew Narvaiz is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers women's basketball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @matt_narvaiz.
