Staying after practice every day to shoot threes as Jaedyn De La Cerda does was bound to pay off for her eventually, and on Wednesday night against San Jose State, it did.
The Roswell native set a record for the most points off the bench, finishing with 31 to go along with seven rebounds, tying a career high, and three assists in a 110-72 victory over the Spartans.
“She’s put the work in, she’s put the time in, and when you do that generally, at some point it will pay off,” head coach Mike Bradbury said. “When you get your opportunity, she was ready for that. It’s well deserved.”
De La Cerda said before the game that she was feeling good about her shot.
In front of an announced crowd of 5,974, the Lobos set a plethora of records to go along with De La Cerda’s, scoring the most points in program history and breaking a record of 107 set last year against Northern New Mexico. Jaisa Nunn tied the program record for the best perfect start, going 9-for-9 from the field on the way to 21 points and 14 rebounds.
The Lobos had some trouble hitting shots early on in the game, with the Lobos missing three of their first four shots. Jaisa Nunn started fast, however, against a Spartans team that doesn’t start a player taller than six feet. She recorded the Lobos first eight points before Jaedyn De La Cerda came off the bench and led the Lobos effort to blow open the game.
In 13 first half minutes, she poured in 17 points, three rebounds and 2 assists on 6-of-8 shooting as the Lobos built the lead to 20 on a 17-0 scoring run. At the end of the first half, UNM lead 48-29. Nunn also finished the first half with a double-double, recording 14 points and 12 rebounds.
The second half was a similar story, with the Lobos expanding their lead even further in the third quarter behind a seven-point effort from Nunn and 66% shooting from the field that helped push the lead to as many as 34 points.
Things got even further out of hand in the fourth quarter with UNM pushing the lead to as many as 42, on the way to breaking the school scoring record. Every member of the team got into the game, and Emily Lines was the only one who didn’t score. After taking De La Cerda out with about five minutes left in the game to a rousing ovation, UNM put her back in for another minute in pursuit of her scoring record, which members of the team had been monitoring.
“We were keeping up with (De La Cerda’s), I wasn’t, I didn’t know how many points she had, and we were getting everybody out (on the floor) and they said she needed one more basket so we put her back in for another minute,” Bradbury said.
She didn’t know how close she was, either.
“They were like you gotta get one more bucket, and I was like do I shoot it, do I drive it,” De La Cerda said. “What do I have to score? They said just score it, so I said okay. I didn’t know why he wanted me back in.”
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With her confidence high, something she credits to her teammates for lifting her up, De La Cerda isn’t going to dwell on her big performance.
“I just want to work on the next game and win that one too,” she said.
The Lobos return to the court on Saturday, March 2 in Fort Collins, Colorado against 11th place Colorado State at 2 p.m..
Cameron Goeldner is a senior reporter and photographer for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers men’s soccer, women’s basketball, softball and the Albuquerque Isotopes, but also contributes content for all other sports. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @goeldfinger.
