New Mexico head coach Yvonne Sanchez said Wednesday night’s 49-48 loss to No. 25 Colorado State still stings.
With just three games left, two of which are on the road, UNM will have to quickly shake off the tight affair in order to obtain a bye in the first round of the Mountain West tournament.
“As heartbreaking as last night was, and still kind of is, we had to move on,” Sanchez said in Thursday’s press conference.
UNM had a chance to pull the upset on Wednesday night. After leading the entire first half, the Lobos’ cooled down on the offensive side of the ball in the third quarter.
A late fourth quarter run set senior Khadijah Shumpert up with a chance to win the game as time expired.
She got a good look at the basket and Sanchez said it was the shot the team wanted, but it was to no avail as the ball fell to the floor at the final buzzer.
“When you lose by one, it’s not the ending,” Sanchez said. “You find things through the course of the game and say this is what we could’ve done better.”
As Sanchez said, the Lobos must move on.
The Lobos currently reside in sixth place of the 11 teams in conference, fighting to climb at least one more spot in order to watch the first round in Las Vegas, as opposed to having to be playing.
New Mexico sits a half game behind UNLV (8-8 MW), and trails two full games behind Boise State (9-6 MW) and San Jose State (9-6 MW), the three and four spots, respectively.
“We’ve got three games left,” Sanchez said. “We want to put ourselves in a good position. We want to go 3-0, obviously.”
It won’t be an easy task to for the Lobos to finish league play unscathed. After facing the undefeated Rams (25-1, 15-0 MW), New Mexico will take to the road in its final road trip against Fresno State.
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The Bulldogs (17-9, 13-2 MW) lost just one conference game at home this year against San Jose State on Feb. 3.
The only other Fresno State loss was in double overtime on the road against San Diego State.
The Lobos had the potential to hand the Bulldogs their first conference loss of the season on Jan. 2, but Fresno State narrowly escaped the Land of Enchantment with a 69-65 double-overtime victory.
Even with the sour taste left in New Mexico’s mouth, Sanchez said this game isn’t about revenge. The focus is on winning out, and heating up, before the conference tournament.
“I know our focus is to get a good seed in the tournament,” Sanchez said. “If we can get in the top five seeds, that’s what we want to do.”
A first round bye is obviously ideal for the Lobos (14-12, 7-8 MW). UNM has had a rocky season full of ups and downs; the team has not put together more than three consecutive wins, nor have they lost more than three in a row.
As tournament time approaches, the Lobos may need to put together its longest winning streak of the season, or the team will be packing its bags early.
“I don’t care how many games we have to play in the tournament. If we want to win four, we’ll win four. If we have to play three, we’ll win three,” Sanchez said. “It’s (about) getting hot at the right time.”
Liam Cary-Eaves is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He covers volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Liam_CE.
