A strong defensive effort, which saw the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team force 25 turnovers, helped them cruise to an 84-68 victory over Fort Lewis on Sunday afternoon at Dreamstyle Arena.
Leading the charge defensively was freshman guard N’Dea Flye who, when on the court, seemed to be wherever the ball was. She was able to force three steals — which was tied for a game-high along with senior guard Alex Lapeyrolerie.
New Mexico capitalized on those turnovers, too, scoring 31 of their 84 points off of them.
“Defensively I feel like I did really good,” Flye said. “That’s my game: defense. And I just worked on it since our last exhibition game, just constantly getting on ball, being in the gap and everything.”
Defense, though, wasn’t the only thing the Lobos executed well against Fort Lewis. In fact, it was New Mexico’s offense that ultimately won them the game in decisive fashion.
Four Lobos ended the game scoring in double digits. Flye and senior guard Tesha Buck had 14 points apiece, while senior guard Cherise Beynon and Nunn had 11 and 10 points, respectively.
New Mexico opened the game on an immediate three-pointer from Beynon. From there, two Nunn layups put the Lobos up 7-0, before Fort Lewis managed to get on the board on 1-of-2 made free throws from freshman forward Vivian Gray.
Nunn, who scored six of the Lobos’ first nine points, said that all she tried to do at the start of the game was give her full effort.
“I was just trying to play hard,” she said. “Starting out the game, I always like to do that, so you just keep going at it.”
It was evident, even in the first quarter, that New Mexico was going to be the better team on Sunday. UNM grew its lead to 16 points by the end of the first period, after Buck scored the last six points for the Lobos on two shots from beyond the arc.
After entering the second quarter with a 28-12 lead, New Mexico gave up four points to Fort Lewis in the first few minutes. But the Lobos followed with a 4-0 run of their own, with Flye and Nunn each knocking down a pair of free throws.
A little under halfway through the second quarter, the Lobos grew their lead to 19 on a three-pointer from senior guard Laneah Bryan to go up 39-20. And the margin continued to grow as New Mexico increased it to a 22-point advantage, entering the second half with a 48-26 lead.
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Immediately, Fort Lewis came out firing in the second half of play. The Skyhawks opened up the third quarter on an 8-0 run shortly after Beynon scored the first points of the half on a layup. More impressively, however, was that Fort Lewis’ Gray scored eight points a little over four minutes in.
But that didn’t stop the Lobos, especially Buck and Beynon. The two combined to account for 13 of the team’s 18 third quarter points.
In the fourth quarter, already with a 23-point lead, New Mexico again managed to score first, this time on a Nunn layup, giving the Lobos a 68-43 advantage.
Interestingly enough, the Lobos didn’t make a three-pointer in the fourth quarter, but Flye managed to score six of the team’s 18 points in that frame. Fort Lewis also outscored the Lobos 25-18 in the quarter, though that didn’t matter much.
In total, Fort Lewis outrebounded the Lobos 46-43. The Skyhawks also shot 41.2 percent from the field.
New Mexico shot a less accurate 39.1 percent average, but did shoot 25.7 percent from three-point range.
“I feel really confident,” Flye said when asked if she was ready for the season opener. “It’s going to be nerve racking, but I’m excited.”
Up next for the Lobos is their season opener at home against Western Michigan on Nov. 10 at 7 p.m.
Matthew Narvaiz is a senior sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers baseball and men’s and women’s basketball but also contributes content for football. He can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @matt_narvaiz.
