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@ThomasRomeroS
LAS VEGAS – The season long theme of close losses continued for the New Mexico women’s basketball team at the Mountain West tournament on Monday.
UNM guard Antiesha Brown missed a game-tying 3-pointer with two seconds left to give Utah State a 69-66 victory over the Lobos in the opening game of the Mountain West Championship.
The defeat was UNM’s 14th loss this season of seven or fewer points.
“For us seniors, it’s very tough. It was a pattern obviously,” forward Deeva Vaughn said. “But this is a whole different season… I felt like we were trying our best to win.”
In the second half, UNM shot just 22.2 percent (6 of 27) from the field after hitting 58.6 percent (17 of 29) in the first half.
Head coach Yvonne Sanchez said USU did a good job of denying the post in the second half, which forced UNM to take more jump shots. Turnovers also cost the Lobos as they had 19 errors that turned into 25 points for the Aggies.
Those 19 turnovers by UNM (11-19) tied the first round record for most turnovers by a team in a first-round game.
“We just didn’t do a good job of passing the ball. We turned it over. That killed us the first four minutes of the second half. We turn it over from the high post, we turn it over from the short corner,” she said. “We made just really errant passes when we were covering those in the first half, we weren’t as aggressive.”
The Lobos lead the entire game until Aggies forward Ingrida Strikas hit a layup for a 53-52 edge with 13:26 left in the second half. UNM had a 7:35 scoring drought in the second half that allowed USU to build a six point lead.
UNM cut USU’s lead to three points several times throughout the final 12 minutes but couldn’t tie or take the lead down the stretch.
After Aggies guard Jennifer Schlott missed a jumper, the Lobos rebounded the ball with 26 seconds remaining. UNM tried to run a play for the game-tying trey but the Lobos messed up their timing which ended up with Brown chucking up a contested 3-pointer that missed.
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“We were going to specifically go to a 3-point shot,” Vaughn said. “Communication didn’t flow like it should have. That’s pretty much what happened.”
USU’s Schlott, who was named MW Player of the Year, torched the Lobos for 29 points on 11 of 24 shots to along with seven assists.
In the three games against the Lobos this season, Schlott averaged 30.6 points per game.
We know what she (Schlott) likes to do. She’s still hard to guard,” Sanchez said. “She’s got an arrary of moves. She’s very smart. She does a good job.”
Vaughn paced the Lobos with 17 points and had a team-high eight boards. Brown and forward Khadijah Shumpert both had 13 points, while Halasz scored 12 points.
Forward Stephanie Bairstow was the second leading scorer for the Aggies (15-15) with 16 points, hitting 7 of 11 attempts. Guard Makenlee Williams had 11 points and five rebounds.
Mountain West awards announced
San Diego State guard Xavier Thames took home the Mountain West Player of the Year award two days after the Aztecs clinched the MW regular-season title with a 51-48 win over New Mexico.
The head coach of the Aztecs Steve Fisher was honored as MW Coach of the Year, SDSU forward Josh Davis earned Newcomer of the Year and teammate Dwayne Polle II was named Sixth Man of the Year.
UNLV forward Khem Birch garnered Defensive Player of the Year, while Fresno State guard Paul Watson received Freshman of the Year.
Thames was also selected to the First-Team All-Mountain West along with UNM forward Cameron Bairstow, Nevada guard Devonte Burton, UNM guard Kendall Williams and Wyoming forward Larry Nance Jr.
Lobo center Alex Kirk and Williams were both named to the All-Defensive Team.
Besides Schlott being honored as MW Player of the Year for the women, Colorado State head coach Ryun Williams was selected as Coach of the Year, while Fresno State senior Taylor Thompson and Nevada guard Mimi Mungedi were named Co-Defensive player of the Year honors.
The Rams Caitlin Duffy earned Sixth Player of the Year and Boise State’s Yaiza Rodriguez and CSU’s Ellen Nystrom were selected as Co-Freshman of the Year. The Broncos Deanna Weaver took home Newcomer of the Year.
The First-Team All-Mountain West included Schlott, Weaver, Thompson, SDSU center Cierra Warren and Wyoming forward Kalya Woodward.
UNM’s Brown was the only Lobo to receive a postseason accolade by earning a place on the Honorable Mention team.
