The Lobo women's basketball team will play its final regular season game on Friday, taking on San Diego State on the road.
New Mexico (15-13, 10-7 MW) beat San Diego State with ease earlier in the season on Dec. 31, 2016. The Lobos took down the Aztecs, 85-42, in WisePies Arena.
as they will take on the likes of San Diego State – a team they beat with ease on the last day of 2016 and in its second Mountain West Conference game of the season, 85-42, at WisePies Arena.
Both teams will be looking to finish the season with a bang and gain some much-needed momentum heading into the Mountain West Basketball Tournament.
New Mexico head coach Mike Bradbury said he believes his team is more than capable, too. He said that February has been his team’s “best” month of basketball, despite some of the losses.
“Well, we've played really good the past month – probably our best basketball,” Bradbury said. “You know we've come up a little short in a couple games, but we've played absolutely as good as we can play from a defensive standpoint and from an execution standpoint.”
Bradbury said his team has the ability to win if the Lobos are able to shoot well from the field.
“If we keep playing this hard and this good defensively, and if we can shoot 40 percent, then we're going to win,” Bradbury said.
San Diego State (5-12, 10-8 MW) sits in second to last place in the conference standings, so the Lobos could be in good position to grab a win to finish the regular season on a strong note.
The Lobos will like look to turn loose the offensive threats of junior guards Cherise Beynon and senior center Richelle van der Keijl, both of whom can produce a healthy dose of scoring.
Beynon is averaging 15.9 points per game on the season – second in the MW – and first in the conference in assists at 6.7 per game.
Van der Keijl has averaged 14.1 points per game, a team-high 9.8 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and her field goal shooting rate of 59 percent is the best in the conference.
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But the Aztecs pose a scoring threat as well, as junior McKynzie Fort’s 15.8 point scoring average leads the team and ranks third in the Mountain West.
San Diego State has two other scorers that have nearly averaged double digits with senior Kymberly Ellison and junior Lexy Thorderson both putting up 9.5 points per game.
The Lobos outrank the Aztecs in nearly every team statistical category, scoring over four more points per game on average at 67.9, while SDSU has scored 63.7 as a team.
Rebounding, which could be a key factor in Saturday’s game, also favors the Lobos. The 45.8 rebound per game average for the Lobos is much higher than the total of 33.1 boards for the Aztecs.
And there's a distinct size advantage in the low-post for the Lobos, too. Both van der Keijl and senior Kianna Keller stand at 6’5” and 6’4”, respectively, while SDSU’s bigs – which play significant minutes – are all 6’1” or shorter.
Bradbury said he sees the size advantage, but expects the Aztecs will try to neutralize things by attempting to double van der Keijl down on the blocks.
“We're gonna try and throw it in there at every opportunity,” Bradbury said in regards to getting the ball to van der Keijl. “But that's not much different than what we always try to do.”
The Lobos’ game against SDSU will tip off on Friday, Mar. 3 at 7:30 p.m. The game will be streamed live on the Mountain West Network.
Matthew Narvaiz is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers women's basketball and baseball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @matt_narvaiz
