The Lobo women's basketball will travel to Logan, Utah Wednesday night to face off against Utah State for the second time this season.
The Lobos (9-9, 5-3 MW) enter Wednesday’s contest with the same overall number of wins as their opponent (nine), but UNM sports the better conference record (9-9, 2-5 MW).The Lobos are also coming off of a loss at Wyoming, while Utah State is looking to rebound after a loss at Colorado State.
The last time New Mexico and Utah State faced off was near the beginning of the calendar year on Jan. 4 — a 78-67 victory that the Lobos nabbed late at WisePies Arena.
The first matchup boded well for the Lobos in shooting percentage, as they shot 40.3 percent. But they didn’t hold Utah State down, as the Aggies let it rip for a 41 percent shooting night.
Utah State’s best weapon against the Lobos in that game was freshman guard Olivia West, who dropped a stream of 3s on the Lobos. West went 5-of-8 from beyond the arc, accounting for over half of the team’s 3-point baskets. West scored a team-high 19 points against the Lobos.
The Lobos had three double-digit scorers in junior guard Cherise Beynon (23), sophomore forward Jaisa Nunn (22) and senior center Richelle van der Keijl (18).
Nunn’s 22 was a career-high performance — with all those points coming off of the bench for the Lobos. She has since eased into a starting role, beginning several games later against Boise State.
The biggest performance was from Beynon, who poured in 23 points. She also had eight assists and five steals in the game.
Van der Keijl also had a solid game, contributing 18 points and 12 rebounds to post a double-double on Utah State.
New Mexico picked up its pace in the latter stages of the game to take home the victory after traveling at the half against the Aggies, somewhat atypical of how the Lobos normally perform..
For the Lobos to beat Utah State again, the team will have to limit the Aggies from getting to the free throw line. In the prior matchup, they held them to only 12 free throw shots, while the Lobos were able to hit 20-of-26 charity shots.
Head coach Mike Bradbury might also want to keep his bigs — van der Keijl and senior forward Kianna Keller — on the floor longer, as the size advantage clearly disrupted Utah State’s efforts in the first matchup this season. The Lobos outrebounded Utah State, 40-36, while scoring off good high-post passes to van der Keijl and Nunn over Utah State’s shorter defenders.
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The Lobos are the third best team in the nation in rebounds per game, averaging 47. Van der Keijl is averaging nearly 10 rebounds per game, with Beynon (7.6) and Nunn (7.2) trailing her as the second and third-leading rebounders on the team.
The game will be streamed live on the Mountain West Network on Wednesday, Jan. 25. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.
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.
