The Lobos dominated in nearly every aspect of the contest to snap a three-game losing streak against the Rams. UNM is riding a nine game home win-streak and have won six straight overall.
Senior guard Antiesha Brown said the team was confident in beating CSU, but said she had no clue the Lobos were going to trample the Rams by that much.
“It kind of just happened, honestly,” Brown said. “Beating them by 27, that’s a basketball player’s dream right there.”
UNM relied on its freshman guard Cherise Beynon to take control of the game. In the first half, Beynon led all players in points (11), assists (3), steals (3) and rebounds (5).
“She’s just getting better and better,” head coach Yvonne Sanchez said. “It’s just another dimension that you have to stop.”
Beynon would eventually wind up producing a career and game-high 18 points and a game-high of eight boards. In the Lobos’ biggest game of the season, Beynon said it shows the potential the team has to dominate any game and not just win close matches.
“I was just having a good night and a good shooting game,” Beynon said. “Even though I had a career-high, as a team it was a good effort.”
Beynon had the best scoring night of her young career with a taped right hand. Beynon said the injury occurred against Utah State on Saturday after a deflected ball ricocheted off the shooting hand.
With an early 13-12 lead, the Lobos started clicking and went on a 23-7 run to end the half. Sanchez said she was not comfortable with any lead over the visiting Rams (17-6, 9-3 Mountain West) and needed to continue to keep the pressure on.
“What we did in the second half, especially defensively...I was very impressed with these young ladies,” Sanchez said. “They’re peaking and gelling at the right time.”
Sanchez said going into the game that the Lobos would need to dominate offensively inside. Her players received the memo scoring 38 points down-low compared to CSU’s 14 points in the paint.
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The Lobos’ defensive dominance was not limited to inside play. The Rams are generally a good 3-point shooting squad but were held to 5-27 behind the arc.
Sanchez has emphasized all season that the Lobos (13-10, 9-3 MW) need to “hang its hat on defense” and certainly did that on Wednesday, holding the Rams to 40 points and 24.1 percent shooting. Colorado State averages 66.3 points per game and 42.2 percent from the field.
Brown said the dominating performance has given the Lobos an edge as the team is beginning to assert themselves as one of the high-powered teams in the Mountain West.
“We just want to stay away from that middle spot,” Brown said. “We want to be a contender and not a pretender like coach Sanchez likes to say.”
UNM will prepare for incoming Nevada (7-15, 3-8 in the Mountain West) on Saturday but Sanchez said the team is going to make sure to soak in this win.
“We’re going to enjoy this one,” Sanchez said. “They deserve to enjoy this one and they deserve to go to bed tonight feeling good about themselves.”
Liam Cary-Eaves is the assistant sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at assistantsports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Liam_CE.
