Sports

Sports

Men's basketball: Long-shooting Lobos shot down by Air Force

Kyle Tomasi | February 6

New Mexico has had trouble finding its identity this season, whether it be at the offensive or defensive ends. Wednesday’s loss at Air Force highlighted this. UNM dropped a heartbreaker to the Air Force Falcons 53-49 after the Lobos couldn’t find their rhythm on the offensive side, hoisting up shots that they haven’t been known to hit this season. The Lobos trailed the Falcons much of the first half and went into halftime down two after a corner 3-pointer by senior guard Deshawn Delaney at the buzzer. UNM attempted 13 3-pointers in the first half and connected on six of them.

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Sports

Football: New recruits will improve UNM's air game

Thomas Romero-Salas | February 6

The triple option isn’t typically an offense that attracts wide receivers. That changed on National Signing Day for New Mexico, as four of the Lobos’ 22 signees were wideouts. With the addition of the four newbies, UNM now has 10 wide receivers on scholarships. The new targets that UNM acquired on Wednesday are: Q’ Drennan, Delane Hart-Johnson, Sa’von Rollison and Anu Somoye. Hart-Johnson will only have three years of eligibility after having played one season at L.A. Valley College. The rest of group are incoming freshman and have four years of playing time.

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Sports

Softball: UNM predicted last for MW conference

Liam Cary-Eaves | February 6

New Mexico enters the start of the softball season with great confidence after an undefeated fall and three nominations for preseason All-Conference players. However, the Mountain West feels differently. The Lobos are projected to finish dead last in the conference this year following last year’s departure of four key starters. “We did lose some big sticks, but I feel that we have kids that have stepped up,” head coach Erica Beach said at the softball media day press conference. “I feel we have more bats in the lineup that can get it done now and I’m very confident.”

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Sports

Women's basketball: Team hopes to contain Utah's super-freshman

Liam Cary-Eaves | February 6

The last time New Mexico faced off against Utah State, the squad didn’t know what to expect from a team going through significant changes. On Jan. 10 the Lobos had to prepare for an Aggie squad that just lost two of its best players, forward Stephanie Bairstow and guard Makenlee Williams. This time around, UNM knows to key in on freshman standout Funda Nakkasoglu. Nakkasoglu nearly willed her team to victory after dropping 29 points in a tight 60-59 game at WisePies Arena. However, a late turnover by the freshman guard demolished any chance of their leaving the Pit victorious.

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Sports

Women's basketball: Eight home wins for Lobos

Liam Cary-Eaves | February 5

Eight straight home wins have given New Mexico a winning record for the first time all season, following Wednesday night’s 69-46 rout against Air Force at WisePies Arena. In addition to the hot record at home, UNM (11-10, 7-3 MW) has put together four consecutive regular season conference wins for the first time since the 2006-2007 season. “I don’t want to sit and compare one team to another, but I see a lot of this team in that team,” head coach Yvonne Sanchez said. “This team is very athletic, they’re very good, and they play well together.”

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Sports

Lobos gear up to face Air Force once more

Kyle Tomasi | February 4

The New Mexico men’s basketball team will have another tough go-around with the unique Princeton offense when the Lobos face the Air Force Falcons for the second time this year. Second-year head coach Craig Neal said the team will not prepare for the Princeton offense any differently this time around. The Lobos have always prepared for the offense as a whole rather than for any personnel.

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Sports

Walk-on defies expectations, fulfills dreams

Kyle Tomasi | February 4

Walk-ons typically are not expected to play much during the season. Junior college transfer Tim Jacobs was supposed to fit that role too until some teammate injuries and his solid play bumped up his playing time early this season. Jacobs knows about the stereotypes surrounding the term walk-on but doesn’t let that affect him when he puts on the cherry and silver uniform.

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Sports

Lobos ready to defend record on home court

Liam Cary-Eaves | February 4

By Liam Cary-Eaves New Mexico is no longer accepting comparisons to last season’s club. UNM is one of the hottest teams in the conference, riding a three-game winning streak and having won six of the last seven games. Head coach Yvonne Sanchez said the team has adopted a new character of its own and has moved past the troubled 11-19 record (6-12 Mountain West) of last year.

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Sports

Women's basketball: UNM moves up in MW standings after close win

Staff Report | February 2

New Mexico continued its pursuit of an upper-tier position in the Mountain West rankings with a tight 64-62 victory against San Jose State. With one second left to play on the game clock, the Spartans (9-11, 3-6 in the Mountain West) had a chance to send things into overtime with SJSU’s best free throw shooter, guard Ta’Rea Cunnigan, at the line. Cunnigan is shooting a respectable 73 percent from the charity stripe on the season, but after missing the first free throw, she botched the second attempt to give her team a chance to send it to overtime. UNM snatched the board and sealed the game.

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Sports

Men's soccer: Midfielder departs for the pro leagues

Isabel Gonzalez | February 2

Next year junior midfielder Ben McKendry will be a “different ball of wax,” as they say in Canada. Last week McKendry signed a Homegrown Player contract with the Vancouver Whitecaps, and will thus forgo his senior season with the UNM men’s soccer team to join the MLS. According to MLS rules, a club may sign a player to his first professional contract without subjecting him to the SuperDraft if the player has trained for one year in the club’s youth development program and has trained 80 days with the academy.

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Sports

Track & Field: UNM records fall in highly competitive meet

Liam Cary-Eaves | February 2

Big-name schools brought strong performances to New Mexico with record-breaking efforts in Saturday’s New Mexico Collegiate Invitational at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Ridge Jones now shares a piece of the 60-meter dash record while Sammy Silva and Holly Van Grinsven sit atop the New Mexico record books for their performances in the 800-meter race and 60-meter hurdles, respectively. The rigorous competition featured three nationally ranked teams: No. 11 Alabama men’s track team, No. 12 Kansas State women, and No. 21 UCLA women’s team. UNM’s women finished second on the day while the men were fourth.

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Sports

Men's Basketball: Lackluster Lobos steamroll San Jose State

Kyle Tomasi | February 2

Head coach Craig Neal was anything but pleased in spite of New Mexico’s 67-41 blowout over San Jose State on Saturday night. He said his team is supposed to be getting better on a daily basis, but he didn’t feel they accomplished that in Saturday’s 26-point romp at WisePies Arena. “I thought that was a very average performance from my team,” Neal said. “I thought they came out in the first four minutes and played really good, (but) we still had a lot of mental breakdowns offensively. We still had a lot of mental breakdowns defensively — I’m a little concerned about that. You can’t play to your opponent.”

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Sports

Injuries plague young Lobo men's team

Kyle Tomasi | January 30

For the first time in recent memory, New Mexico men’s basketball has had a hard time finding a consistent rotation due to injuries and an inexperienced team. Second-year head coach Craig Neal said his team is getting better every day, but still needs to work on mental errors. He said he expects a lot out of his young guys, and won’t settle for little mistakes being made this far into the season.

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Sports

New women's soccer coach trained kids, Olympians

Thomas Romero-Salas | January 30

It’s one extreme to the next for Heather Dyche. After years of working at the club and Olympic level, Dyche will be moving onto the collegiate ranks following her introduction as the new head coach of the New Mexico women’s soccer program on Thursday.

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Sports

Softball coach confident despite loss of key players

Liam Cary-Eaves | January 30

Losing four starting position players would generally be a cause for concern. However, UNM softball head coach Erica Beach said the team is headed in the right direction after losing two transfer players and losing two seniors from last year’s squad. “We’ve got some studs on this team and I am really excited to see what they can do,” Beach said.

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Sports

Defense key to women's winning streak

Liam Cary-Eaves | January 30

After a slow start to the season against tough competitors, the New Mexico women’s basketball team has been scorching hot as of late, winning five of its past six games. Head coach Yvonne Sanchez said the defense has been the key component to UNM’s recent success.

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Sports

Governor donates to UNM Cancer Center

Kyle Tomasi | January 28

Senior guard Hugh Greenwood’s “Pink Pack” received an unexpected gift from a state figure on Monday afternoon to go toward the UNM Cancer Center. New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez presented UNM men’s basketball head coach Craig Neal with a $10,000 check to be given to Greenwood’s campaign, money that was unused from a privately-collected inaugural fund.

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Opinion

Column: Deflate-gate is over-inflated media scandal

J.R. Oppenheim | January 26

Tired of hearing about Deflate-gate yet? Don’t worry. I’m not throwing in my two cents about whether New England quarterback Tom Brady told his equipment manager to purposefully reduce the PSI in 11 of 12 footballs during last week’s AFC title game. If head coach Bill Belichick gave the order, I don’t care. This won’t affect the Super Bowl in seven days. I am sick of this media oversaturation over Deflate-gate, as I am sure you are. We reached the point of absurdity days ago, and there unfortunately seems to be no end in sight until next week’s title showdown. The national sports media should be ashamed of themselves.

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Sports

Sand Volleyball: Inaugural season starts soon

Liam Cary-Eaves | January 26

Questions and excitement surround New Mexico’s newest sport as the first official practice inches near. Sand volleyball will hold its opening practice on Feb. 9, and head coach Jeff Nelson said his team has shown a lot of enthusiasm at open gym sessions in preparation for the inaugural season. Even with an upbeat group of players, UNM has not yet confirmed where it will host the home games, although Nelson said he foresees his team hosting games at the Stoneface courts located on Paseo Del Norte and I-25.

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Sports

Women's basketball: Under pressure, UNM rallies in second half

Liam Cary-Eaves | January 26

New Mexico turned to its leaders to fight through a major first-half deficit in a 60-54 victory over Wyoming on Saturday. Nothing was falling in place for the Lobos in the first half as the team went into the locker room trailing 28-19. A halftime speech from head coach Yvonne sparked a fire among her unit, and the Lobos stopped committing silly turnovers in the second half. “I told my leaders Antiesha (Brown), Khadijah (Shumpert) and Bryce (Owens), I challenged them at halftime,” head coach Yvonne Sanchez said. “They responded. I am really proud of those three because everyone kind of jumped on their back and said ‘We’re with you.’”