Forward Khadijah Shumpert led the surge in her final game at WisePies Arena on Friday night, propelling UNM to a 66-42 victory over Nevada.
The game was back and forth until late into the third quarter. With a 36-36 tie, Shumpert decided enough was enough. The senior scored 12 of UNM’s 14 points at the end of the third and into the start of the fourth quarter.
“Khadijah has just been our heart and soul all year,” Lobo head coach Yvonne Sanchez said.
Though Shumpert was forced to come out with four fouls after igniting her squad, the Lobos never looked back. Shumpert broke the 36-36 tie, which then led to a 30-6 run to end the Lobos’ regular season.
“The girls have made it clear, verbally, that they need me in for the energy, and that is a big part of my role,” Shumpert said. “I couldn’t ask for anything else from them.”
She finished the game with 21 points. Uncharacteristically, she didn’t notch a single board, but did collect four steals in her 17 minutes of play.
UNM’s defense was not a problem on Friday night as the Lobos held Nevada to a 28 percent shooting night and zero made field goals in the fourth quarter.
Though the scoreboard was indicative of a blowout, that was not the case as the Lobos really didn’t get going until the fourth quarter, where they outscored Nevada 22-3.
“I really like what we did in that fourth quarter,” Sanchez said. “The first three quarters were just a grind.”
Sanchez said part of what plagued UNM at the start of the contest was nervousness to play well for the departing seniors. She said individuals were trying to do too much at times in order to ensure the seniors would walk away from their last game at WisePies as winners.
“I thought we were just real emotional,” Sanchez said. “I started the seniors, and everyone was just trying to do everything for the seniors.”
Forward Alexa Chavez saw that in her own play as well as in the rest of the team. She said that a lot of her frustrations at the beginning of the game came because she knew it would be the final one in front of the home crowd.
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“It’s like everyone just wanted to contribute and wanted to give it their all,” Chavez said. “Sometimes when you do that, you get in your head too much. But once we got it together, we took off.”
Though the season has not been smooth sailing, Sanchez said that she is proud of her group and the way the team came together to win tough games.
“I like the fact that our kids can adjust and play both ways,” Sanchez said. “Nothing is going to be perfect and nothing is going to be pretty a lot of times.”
The three seniors were able to be courted off with a proper goodbye, being pulled out together by Sanchez with the game well in hand and under two minutes left.
Shumpert said that it felt great and that she wouldn’t want to play in Albuquerque again because it would mean the Lobos didn’t win the conference tournament, which begins on Monday. However, with Fresno State beating Utah State, New Mexico (16-13,9-9 MW) owns the tie breaker over UNLV and will be able to enjoy a first round bye, not playing until Tuesday.
“At this point, I don’t want to play on The Pit floor again because that would mean we didn’t make it to the NCAAs,” Shumpert said.
Liam Cary-Eaves is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Liam_CE.
