New Mexico’s offensive woes cast a shadow on Cherise Beynon’s career night.
UNM came out of the gates against Utah State with the inability to hit shots while Beynon quietly tied her career high with 21 points amidst the 72-56 loss in Logan, Utah.
Utah State, a team known in the conference for its ability to put a lot of points on the board proved once again why they are ranked among the top offenses in the league. However, coming into the matchup, the Aggies (7-8, 2-2 MW) allowed more points than they were scoring.
UNM was not able to take advantage of the poor USU defense.
New Mexico (8-6, 1-2 MW) has lost three of its last four games. In those three losses, the Lobos have not mustered a shooting average of more than 32 percent, a number which requires superb defense.
Head coach Yvonne Sanchez has stated she coaches teams who hang their hats on defense. However, even UNM’s quality defense has not been able to right the ship during a time of serious offensive struggles.
In the first half, the Lobos hit just eight of the team’s 29 shots from the field (27.6 percent). Utah State was on a tear, sinking 15 of 28 in the first 20 minutes of play which facilitated quite a hole for New Mexico to dig out of.
The fight was not gone, as the Lobos were able to outscore the Aggies in the second half but the ignition occurred far too late. Overcoming a 25 point deficit is hard for any team to overcome, but a team that is struggling to hit open shots is quite a daunting task.
“I like their fight in the second half but the first half, the wheels fell off,” Sanchez said in a release. “We just didn’t finish and score. We had wide-open looks on the outside that we just didn’t put down. I know we are capable of shooting because in the second half, we did a really good job.”
The second half was better than the first as the Lobos hit 11 of their 31 attempts, but the Lobos put the ball in the net in an untraditional fashion, via guard play. This season, the Lobos have been reliant on the ability to score down low. UNM only scored 10 points in the paint on Saturday.
While Beynon, New Mexico’s sophomore guard, is no stranger to stacking stat sheets, the post play has generally been what fuels New Mexico’s offense.
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That wasn’t the case in Logan, Utah.
Beynon and fellow guard Bryce Owens accounted for 12 of the Lobos’ 19 buckets in the contest, while just four baskets came from UNM’s post play. New Mexico has just recently welcomed back Emily Lines, its best deep ball threat, after the guard suffered a stress fracture before MW play.
“Cherise and Bryce both led that surge in the second half,” Sanchez said in the release. “I like what Emily is doing and I think she is getting more comfortable. She was playing well before the stress fracture. She played six minutes last game and this game 11.”
Although hitting the panic button may be quite premature this early into conference play, Sanchez is going to need to find a way for her squad to score in the occurrence the team’s defense is not perfect.
Liam Cary-Eaves is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers volleyball, women’s basketball, baseball, and beach volleyball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Liam_CE.
