The UNM women's basketball team withstood a physical battle against Brigham Young University Thursday night to post its second conference victory of the season 58-52.
The Lobos' (13-4, 2-1 in the Mountain West Conference) attack was spearheaded by junior center Jordan Adams'13 points and six rebounds and freshman point guard Mandi Moore's 12 points and a career tying nine rebounds. The Lobos shot 34 percent and were three-of-10 from behind the arc.
Cougars' forward Jennifer Leitner lead BYU with 15 points and eight rebounds.
UNM head coach Don Flanagan was impressed by Moore's play.
"Mandi played a heck of a game," he said. "She ran the show. Mandi is always confident."
The scrappy Cougars used a tight man-to-man defense that had both teams playing rough, resulting in 39 total fouls for the game, including a technical against BYU head coach Jeff Judkins.
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Freshman forward Lindsey Arndt said that the team knew the game was going to be physical, but it ended up being more physical than she expected.
It looked like the Lobos would have no problem defeating BYU (10-6, 1-2) early in the second half after a smooth back door pass by Adams to Moore for a basket, putting the Lobos up by 16 points with nine minutes remaining. But the Cougars weren't going to pack their bags just yet, putting up a tough fight.
BYU went on a six-and-a-half minute 18-4 run, scoring three of its six 3-pointers down the stretch to tighten the score at 51-49.
Flanagan said that the Cougars used a lot of back screens to get by the Lobos.
"We knew they were coming, but not with so much speed," he said. "(We were) feeling like it was slipping fast. We just needed one shot."
UNM junior forward Chelsea Grear said the team was playing tentative, but didn't loose confidence.
"The whole time I knew we would pull the game out," she said.
BYU had an opportunity to tie the game with 1:39 remaining, but Leitner traveled before making the tying bucket. Grear capitalized on the error, making a short jumper as she was fouled. Grear completed the three-point play, taming the Cougars comeback attempt and putting the Lobos up to stay 54-49.
Grear was cynical about her heroics following the game.
"That was one of my ballerina moves," she said.
Adams fouled out of the game with just under a minute remaining, sending Cougar guard Melanie Pearson to the line where she made one-of-two tries to bring the score to 54-50.
Along with Leitner being on Adams the whole night, the Cougars double and triple teamed her. Flanagan gave BYU credit for doing a good defensive job on the Lobos leading scorer.
After two made free throws by UNM sophomore forward Melissa Forest, Pearson put back a missed 3-pointer by Leitner to close in on the Lobos 56-54 with 45 seconds remaining. Freshman guard Stephanie Shaw put the game out of reach with 6.5 seconds remaining when she drained two free-throws.
The Lobo's controlled most of the first half after eight lead changes, using a 10-0 run ignited by a Forest 3-pointer with 8:43 remaining. The Cougars crept back as guard Stacy Jensen completed a three-point play and Leitner buried a top of the key three with time running out to cut the lead to 30-25 at halftime.
Arndt chipped in with 11 points and five rebounds for the Lobos.
UNM's next game is Saturday against the University of Utah at 7 p.m. in The Pit.
