A 23-point performance from New Mexico’s senior forward Khadijah Shumpert was to no avail as UNM fell 81-60 to Boise State on Saturday afternoon.
Head coach Yvonne Sanchez said in her postgame press conference that her squad did not get off to the start it needed in order to be successful against the Broncos.
“When you’ve got a team that good that has its way early you’re in trouble,” Sanchez said. “It was exactly the kind of start we knew we had to avoid.”
Shumpert, who was forced to watch the majority of the second quarter on the bench after picking up three fouls, said she felt responsible for letting her squad down after getting into early foul trouble.
“It was really hard watching that,” Shumpert said. “I feel like I let my team down with the three fouls.”
Boise State’s guard Brooke Pahukoa led the charge for the Broncos (14-6, 7-2 MW) with a game-high 25 points. She added five boards and an assist in her squad’s victory over the Lobos.
“We got beat by a team that’s flat-out better than we are right now,” Sanchez said. “We worked on every one of those plays they ran in the first half, but we missed some assignments; they executed flawlessly and their shots were falling.”
Boise State shot 55 percent from the field on Saturday, a percentage UNM couldn’t keep pace with.
Though the Lobos offense has shown signs of improvement during the team’s past few games, UNM was never able to dig out of the early hole.
Guard Cherise Beynon gave UNM (11-8, 4-4 MW) 13 points and five boards in her team’s losing effort.
The Lobos were able to get 28 points down low, but aside from Shumpert’s performance, the post-play was underwhelming.
Forward Kianna Keller failed to put up a single shot in her 15 minutes of play and her fellow post, Whitney Johnson, also failed to make a single bucket in her seven attempts.
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Lately, UNM has been making it a point to have the bigs run the offense. However, Saturday afternoon’s contest was far from what Sanchez drew up for her offense.
The Lobos trailed 48-27 at intermission. During the first 20 minutes of play, the Broncos were shooting a red-hot 72 percent from the field.
The Lobos were able to adjust at halftime with tighter defense coming out of the break, but it was already too late.
“I am proud of the girls for the third quarter,” Shumpert said. “We talked about heart at halftime, and we went out with a fight.”
Boise State was the better team, but Sanchez said her squad will be able to grow from the game as UNM heads down the stretch toward league play.
“When you get beat like this you have to learn from it,” Sanchez said. “We just saw how much better we have to be by the (Mountain West) tournament in March. Boise State is that good now and we have to get back to work.”
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.
