A lot went wrong for New Mexico during the team’s season-opening 65-57 win over Houston Baptist on Friday night.
However, a win is a win.
Despite being outscored in the second half, UNM managed to cling to a 38-22 first-half lead to begin the season 1-0. The game shouldn’t have been as close as it was, and the Lobos were exposed in a variety of areas throughout Friday night’s contest.
“It’s always nice to learn a lesson from a win,” head coach Yvonne Sanchez said. “I’ve learned a lot of lessons from losses.”
UNM scored 22 points inside the paint while holding HBU (0-1) to a mere eight points inside. However, in the second half the Lobos went away from what facilitated success and stumbled in the process.
Sanchez said part of the problem was that the team lost sight of playing together. The defense in the second half was not the same as in the first half. While the Lobos scored 16 inside, Houston Baptist found success against UNM inside, tacking on 16 points of its own down low.
“We’ve just got a lot of stuff to work on, and we need to get better,” Sanchez said. “We played against a team that is going to work harder than any team that’s going to play against us. We should’ve posted up and scored more on the inside.”
Although the posts didn’t have the best second half, center Whitney Johnson flirted with a double-double in her first game back since 2013. The redshirt junior said it felt good to be back in Lobo gear after leaving for Mexico City for a Mormon Mission, even with the second-half slip.
“I know I was horrible from the free throw line, but that’s OK because it’s never going to happen again,” Johnson said. “I was pumped, honestly ... A win is a win, and it’s better to learn lessons when you win.”
Johnson was not the only New Mexico member who had a poor night shooting from the charity stripe. As a whole, the Lobos shot an abysmal 17 of 33 — something Sanchez said she found appalling.
“There’s no excuse. We shoot free throws every day. We shoot pressure free throws in situations,” she said. “There’s no excuse, and it’s disappointing.”
In a contest that featured three early exits due to foul trouble and 44 fouls between both teams, there were plenty of opportunities to get some easy points. Guard Cherise Beynon said the officials were too eager to blow their whistles, leading to frustrations from both squads.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
“You see how frustrated some of us got on the court,” Beynon said. “But we just have to play through adversity, like our coach tells us. So even if the calls aren’t going our way, we just have to play through it and try to work together on it.”
Beynon said the frustrations with the refs did not cause the Lobos to shoot 17 of 33 from the line. The guard said more than likely the poor shooting should be attributed to the anxiety of playing in the first game of the 2015-2016 season.
Nerves will be tamed as the season goes on, but Sanchez said she needs to make sure her team is ready for the trip down to Las Cruces against NMSU on Tuesday.
“It’s one of those things where I need to find some better combinations to put in,” Sanchez said. “We’ve got to get better before our next game or we are really going to feel how bad it is to play badly against a team that really wants to beat us.”
Liam Cary-Eaves is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at assistantsports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Liam_CE.
