LAS VEGAS — It was a widely held opinion that the UNM women’s basketball team had no shot at the Mountain West Conference tournament.
And on Friday, the shooting-in-the-dark Lobos literally didn’t. What plagued UNM all season — poor shooting — finally caught up to them at the tournament. The Lobos, after upsetting teams on their way to the MWC semifinals, shot 23 percent against second-seeded TCU and fell 61-40 at the Thomas & Mack Center on Friday.
“Shots that we were hitting in the first two games, we weren’t even close today,” said head coach Don Flanagan, whose Lobos shot 36 and 44 percent from the field in their two wins. “So it was disappointing that we didn’t play up to our potential.”
The Lobos (13-18 overall) have a slim-to-none chance at getting into the WNIT, while the Horned Frogs, who have made the NCAA tournament 10 of 11 years, will play in their first MWC championship game. TCU will face Utah in the championship, after the Utes upended top-seeded BYU on Michelle Plouffe’s buzzer-beating two-pointer that gave the Utes a 50-49 win.
Struggling to make shots was a season-enduring theme, and largely because of it, the Lobos ended their regular season seventh in the MWC standings.
Friday’s semifinal matchup looked to be closer than UNM expected.
Leading UNM like she did the past two games, guard Jasmine Patterson hit a 3-pointer in the first 26 seconds of Friday’s contest. Over the next 9:26, TCU went on a 20-4 run, capped by a 3-pointer by the Horned Frogs’ Rachel Rentscheler. That about summed up the Lobos’ day.
The young Patterson provided a spark for the Lobos at the tournament, averaging 14.6 point per game. In UNM’s first-round win over San Diego State, Patterson scored a game-high 21 points.
“This is my first tournament as a freshman,” she said. “Apparently I just came out to play, not knowing that it was just important for the seniors. I just wanted to come out and play basketball, not knowing I was in an important conference game. I wasn’t nervous, just because of the fact that I thought it was just another simple game.”
Perhaps the Lobos, too, forgot it was an important, not simple, contest. Their offense nowhere to be found, the Lobos couldn’t shut down TCU’s best player Helena Sverrisdottir.
Sverrisdottir had a game-high 25 points to go with seven rebounds and five assists.
Sverrisdottir, whose team got a bye until the semifinals for finishing in second place in league play, said the 10-day layoff wasn’t a problem for TCU.
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“I think we had some really good practices,” she said. “We were able to get rest, but at the same time get ready for today’s game. So, yeah, (the rest) definitely helped.”
TCU’s rest led it to the win and to two Lobos’ final resting spot.
Friday’s contest was UNM seniors Amanda Best and Jessica Kielpinski last in a Lobo uniform.
Not on par with their last two performances, Best finished with six points and three rebounds, while Kielpinski had five points and four rebounds.
“Both of them I thought had a great tournament,” Flanagan said. “Today was the exception, but they both played as well as they played all year long. Amanda had a couple of really outstanding games. Jess was starting to hit her shots that she hadn’t been hitting during the midseason.”
TCU vs. Utah
Saturday, 2 p.m.
Thomas & Mack Center
