Coming off a big road win in Dallas, New Mexico had a week off to focus on key issues in the team’s game.
Head coach Yvonne Sanchez said Thursday the 63-58 victory over SMU was a pinnacle for the Lobos early in the season. Prior to the Dec. 5 game , UNM had lost consecutive contests for the first time in nearly 11 months.
“It was definitely a signature win for us in so many ways,” Sanchez said. “We had just dropped two, a heartbreak here that we didn’t play very good defense; one on the road at UTEP where we didn’t play very good defense and had a slow start.”
UNM surrounded its week off to focus on finishing the fall semester strong and tightening the defense, Sanchez said. New Mexico will need to make sure the defense is geared up for a Pepperdine (4-6) squad riding a three-game win streak, on the back of freshman guard Erica Ogwumike.
Ogwumike is averaging 16.9 points per contest on top of 7.9 boards per game for the Waves (4-6). Fellow guard Allie Green adds some depth to Pepperdine’s perimeter play shooting over 40 percent from beyond the arc.
Sanchez said Ogwumike and her sister, sophomore forward Olivia Ogwumike, will not be a duo to sleep on as both have the capability to punish the team with the deep ball and inside.
“We just have to defend. Can’t give up middle drives, can’t give up threes,” Sanchez said. “They’ll have their way with you if you let them.”
Senior captain Bryce Owens will be ensuring the Lobos (5-3) don’t get burned on the defensive side of the ball, something the Lobos have had to focus on extra after losing last year’s captain Antiesha Brown.
“We know our offense will come, but we’ve been working on defense,” Owens said. “Defense always has room to improve.”
Sanchez said the defense has regressed a great deal after losing Brown, her vocal leader, to expired eligibility years. The head coach said the major decline in defense has been an issue she didn’t anticipate to be having at this stage in the season.
“I didn’t think we’d be this far behind,” Sanchez said. “You lose one player in Antiesha Brown and it’s just amazing how it changed.”
Owens said she would rather have been competing opposed to working drills, but she said the week off was beneficial to get the team ready to focus on getting better.
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“I hate that it was a week off but at least it gives us time to prepare and get finals done,” Owens said. “So it was a good thing.”
While the players may not have been thrilled to have been studying and working on drills to improve minor tweaks in gameplay, Sanchez embraced the week off to revert back to fundamentals.
“Players want to play and I get it. I was there 100 years ago,” Sanchez joked. “I like it because we get to work on some things that we really needed to.”
Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday at WisePies Arena.
Liam Cary-Eaves is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at assistantsports@dailylobo.com or on twitter @Liam_CE.
