Sports

Women's basketball: Height isn't everything

New Mexico has a tall obstacle to overcome in order to maintain the team’s winning ways. Nevada’s Mimi Mungedi, listed at 6’8”, is among the biggest players in the conference, and will look for success against UNM’s interior defense as the Lobos play host to the Wolf Pack. UNM is the hottest team in the Mountain West of late, riding a six-game winning streak and having won its past nine home games, while Nevada is coming off its first win in nine games. Head coach Yvonne Sanchez said the Lobos will need to keep Mungedi in check in order to come out on top in Saturday’s game.

Turnovers hurt UNM against CSU

The New Mexico Lobos dug themselves in too deep a hole on Tuesday night against a stingy Colorado State team. The Lobos dropped their third straight game of the season to the 70-59 at Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Women's basketball: Lobos dominate Colorado State Rams in MW

New Mexico earned a share of second place in the Mountain West with a 67-40 blowout over Colorado State on Wednesday night. The Lobos dominated in nearly every aspect of the contest to snap a three-game losing streak against the Rams. UNM is riding a nine game home win-streak and have won six straight overall. Senior guard Antiesha Brown said the team was confident in beating CSU, but said she had no clue the Lobos were going to trample the Rams by that much.

UNM men look to bounce back at Colorado State tonight

The last time the New Mexico and Colorado State met, the Rams were ranked and had an unblemished record.

Women's basketball: Lobos maintain winning streak on the road

New Mexico continued its red hot play on Saturday, defeating Utah State 56-51. Head coach Yvonne Sanchez said beforehand that the Lobos needed to slow down Utah State’s freshman point guard Funda Nakkasoglu, and the team did just that. Nakkasoglu scored only 12 points and committed five turnovers at Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, in Logan, Utah. The guard/forward is averaging 15.6 points per contest, according to the Mountain West.

With six seniors and one junior gone, the UNM men’s soccer staff needed to find new talent — and it looks like they’ve found it. Last week the UNM men’s soccer program announced six members of the 2015 recruiting class, a group that has big shoes to fill, as four former Lobos are currently in preseason with MLS clubs and a fifth is on trial with the USL LA Galaxy II. Two or three additional players are expected to sign in the upcoming months.

Men's basketball: Uphill battle ahead after dropped games

For the second straight game, the New Mexico men’s basketball team kept pace with its opponent until the end. The Lobos dropped yet another heartbreaker, this time to the Utah State Aggies 63-60 on Saturday. The team had multiple chances down the stretch to steal the victory, but couldn’t. “I thought Utah State played a very good game,” head coach Craig Neal said. “I thought they made shots when they needed to make shots, and it just seemed like we didn’t come ready to play. I thought we played hard, but we didn’t play up to our capabilities until about the last six minutes.”

Track and field: Lobos gain experience in run-up to big meets

The goal at the New Mexico Classic was to gain experience, and the Lobo track and field team certainly did that. Head coach Joe Franklin said he was going to give some of his players a rest after the New Mexico Collegiate Invitational on Jan. 31. However, he said some of his younger athletes needed to step up to gain some familiarity with tough competition. “We had some really positive things happen,” Franklin said in a release. “They’re making progress ... next week, we’ll gear back up again for the Don Kirby Invite, then two weeks left until conference.”

Men's basketball: Long-shooting Lobos shot down by Air Force

New Mexico has had trouble finding its identity this season, whether it be at the offensive or defensive ends. Wednesday’s loss at Air Force highlighted this. UNM dropped a heartbreaker to the Air Force Falcons 53-49 after the Lobos couldn’t find their rhythm on the offensive side, hoisting up shots that they haven’t been known to hit this season. The Lobos trailed the Falcons much of the first half and went into halftime down two after a corner 3-pointer by senior guard Deshawn Delaney at the buzzer. UNM attempted 13 3-pointers in the first half and connected on six of them.

Football: New recruits will improve UNM's air game

The triple option isn’t typically an offense that attracts wide receivers. That changed on National Signing Day for New Mexico, as four of the Lobos’ 22 signees were wideouts. With the addition of the four newbies, UNM now has 10 wide receivers on scholarships. The new targets that UNM acquired on Wednesday are: Q’ Drennan, Delane Hart-Johnson, Sa’von Rollison and Anu Somoye. Hart-Johnson will only have three years of eligibility after having played one season at L.A. Valley College. The rest of group are incoming freshman and have four years of playing time.

Softball: UNM predicted last for MW conference

New Mexico enters the start of the softball season with great confidence after an undefeated fall and three nominations for preseason All-Conference players. However, the Mountain West feels differently. The Lobos are projected to finish dead last in the conference this year following last year’s departure of four key starters. “We did lose some big sticks, but I feel that we have kids that have stepped up,” head coach Erica Beach said at the softball media day press conference. “I feel we have more bats in the lineup that can get it done now and I’m very confident.”

Women's basketball: Team hopes to contain Utah's super-freshman

The last time New Mexico faced off against Utah State, the squad didn’t know what to expect from a team going through significant changes. On Jan. 10 the Lobos had to prepare for an Aggie squad that just lost two of its best players, forward Stephanie Bairstow and guard Makenlee Williams. This time around, UNM knows to key in on freshman standout Funda Nakkasoglu. Nakkasoglu nearly willed her team to victory after dropping 29 points in a tight 60-59 game at WisePies Arena. However, a late turnover by the freshman guard demolished any chance of their leaving the Pit victorious.

Women's basketball: Eight home wins for Lobos

Eight straight home wins have given New Mexico a winning record for the first time all season, following Wednesday night’s 69-46 rout against Air Force at WisePies Arena. In addition to the hot record at home, UNM (11-10, 7-3 MW) has put together four consecutive regular season conference wins for the first time since the 2006-2007 season. “I don’t want to sit and compare one team to another, but I see a lot of this team in that team,” head coach Yvonne Sanchez said. “This team is very athletic, they’re very good, and they play well together.”

Lobos gear up to face Air Force once more

The New Mexico men’s basketball team will have another tough go-around with the unique Princeton offense when the Lobos face the Air Force Falcons for the second time this year. Second-year head coach Craig Neal said the team will not prepare for the Princeton offense any differently this time around. The Lobos have always prepared for the offense as a whole rather than for any personnel.

Walk-on defies expectations, fulfills dreams

Walk-ons typically are not expected to play much during the season. Junior college transfer Tim Jacobs was supposed to fit that role too until some teammate injuries and his solid play bumped up his playing time early this season. Jacobs knows about the stereotypes surrounding the term walk-on but doesn’t let that affect him when he puts on the cherry and silver uniform.

Lobos ready to defend record on home court

By Liam Cary-Eaves New Mexico is no longer accepting comparisons to last season’s club. UNM is one of the hottest teams in the conference, riding a three-game winning streak and having won six of the last seven games. Head coach Yvonne Sanchez said the team has adopted a new character of its own and has moved past the troubled 11-19 record (6-12 Mountain West) of last year.

Women's basketball: UNM moves up in MW standings after close win

New Mexico continued its pursuit of an upper-tier position in the Mountain West rankings with a tight 64-62 victory against San Jose State. With one second left to play on the game clock, the Spartans (9-11, 3-6 in the Mountain West) had a chance to send things into overtime with SJSU’s best free throw shooter, guard Ta’Rea Cunnigan, at the line. Cunnigan is shooting a respectable 73 percent from the charity stripe on the season, but after missing the first free throw, she botched the second attempt to give her team a chance to send it to overtime. UNM snatched the board and sealed the game.

Men's soccer: Midfielder departs for the pro leagues

Next year junior midfielder Ben McKendry will be a “different ball of wax,” as they say in Canada. Last week McKendry signed a Homegrown Player contract with the Vancouver Whitecaps, and will thus forgo his senior season with the UNM men’s soccer team to join the MLS. According to MLS rules, a club may sign a player to his first professional contract without subjecting him to the SuperDraft if the player has trained for one year in the club’s youth development program and has trained 80 days with the academy.

Track & Field: UNM records fall in highly competitive meet

Big-name schools brought strong performances to New Mexico with record-breaking efforts in Saturday’s New Mexico Collegiate Invitational at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Ridge Jones now shares a piece of the 60-meter dash record while Sammy Silva and Holly Van Grinsven sit atop the New Mexico record books for their performances in the 800-meter race and 60-meter hurdles, respectively. The rigorous competition featured three nationally ranked teams: No. 11 Alabama men’s track team, No. 12 Kansas State women, and No. 21 UCLA women’s team. UNM’s women finished second on the day while the men were fourth.

Men's Basketball: Lackluster Lobos steamroll San Jose State

Head coach Craig Neal was anything but pleased in spite of New Mexico’s 67-41 blowout over San Jose State on Saturday night. He said his team is supposed to be getting better on a daily basis, but he didn’t feel they accomplished that in Saturday’s 26-point romp at WisePies Arena. “I thought that was a very average performance from my team,” Neal said. “I thought they came out in the first four minutes and played really good, (but) we still had a lot of mental breakdowns offensively. We still had a lot of mental breakdowns defensively — I’m a little concerned about that. You can’t play to your opponent.”