Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on Sept. 26 and written by New Mexico News Port reporter Aleks Mihailovic.
Slated as a preseason selection to finish ninth in the Mountain West, the University of New Mexico men's basketball team finished the season far from it — knocking off the Fresno State Bulldogs in overtime on Saturday night to overtake third place in the conference standings. New Mexico ensured itself of a winning record this season, finishing the regular season 17-14 overall and going 12-6 in Mountain West play. The Lobos also extended their season-high winning streak to five with the 95-86 win over the Bulldogs, but three will be the important number moving forward. UNM will shift its attention to next week's 2018 Mountain West Men's Basketball Championship in Las Vegas Nevada, where it will compete as a No. 3 seed and hope to win three games in three days to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Three University of New Mexico men's basketball seniors will try to cap the regular season with a win on Senior Night in what will likely be the last game they ever play at the Pit. Joe Furstinger and Sam Logwood are Lobo veterans, while Antino Jackson, a senior transfer, was added to the roster in the offseason to handle duties at point guard. The three have played their part in turning things around after a rough start to the season and now have their team in the thick of things in the Mountain West. That trio will be recognized following Saturday's matchup against Fresno State, a release said.
It took the entirety of the game, plus some, for the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team to pull out a victory on the road at Fresno State, 93-89. And the Lobos got scoring out a trio of players such as Cherise Beynon, Tesha Buck and Jaisa Nunn in the process. Beynon led UNM with a triple-double performance, putting up 22 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists. It marked her third triple-double of her career. Buck, however, was a problem on offense for the Bulldogs. She scored a team-high 30 points while going 12-of-23 from the field. She also had two threes, though she took a total of 10 of them.
The University of New Mexico baseball team was dealt its first home defeat after Nevada broke the game open with a big inning and held on for the win on Friday night at Santa Ana Star Field. UNM sophomore pitcher Justin Slaten shouldered the loss as New Mexico (4-4-1, 0-1 MW) fell in its conference opener to the Wolf Pack by a score of 9-5. Nevada (4-4, 1-0 MW) got on the board in the top of the first inning, plating a run after Grant Fennell was able to double home Daniel Perry in the top of the frame.
Things got out of hand quickly as the University of New Mexico men's basketball team thoroughly dominated Colorado State in the first half — and then coasted to victory to sweep the regular season series against the Rams. New Mexico (16-14, 11-6 MW) was unrelenting in its quest to lock up a first-round bye in the upcoming 2018 MW Men's Basketball Championship, jumping all over Colorado State in the early going. The Lobos had an answer in the second half for seemingly every run the Rams tried to make and picked up a 108-87 victory for a season-high fourth straight win. In the first meeting between the schools, Colorado State turned the ball over 24 times on the way to an 80-65 loss on Jan. 27 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
And then, it was their last. Four seniors, all guards, stepped onto the Pit floor for the last time, as players for the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team. Seniors Cherise Beynon, Laneah Bryan, Tesha Buck and Alex Lapeyrolerie had a mix of emotions, they said, but a positive outcome in a season in which they broke records, beat the unbeatable and have become a sisterhood. And that sisterhood will stand the test of time, Lapeyrolerie said.
In the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team’s final game at The Pit this season, a strong performance from senior guard Cherise Beynon led the Lobos to a win over Colorado State, 54-48, in front of a crowd of 5,088 screaming fans. Being their last game, it also doubled as “senior night,” in which four Lobos Beynon, Tesha Buck, Alex Lapeyrolerie and Laneah Bryan stepped onto the Pit floor. Lapeyrolerie, who tore her ACL in a game against Air Force a few games ago, also suited up in her uniform. And, to the crowd’s delight, was awarded her spot in the starting lineup. She looked out into the crowd and hugged her teammates before leaving the court shortly after to let the game get started.
Not everyone has the desire or the drive to be a world-class bodybuilder, but college students and other community members may find it rewarding. Sam Schrader, a multi-title bodybuilding champion and University of New Mexico medical student, said he has experienced both mental and physical gains from the sport. “I absolutely think that keeping a consistent training schedule has been unbelievably important to my resilience in the face of an increasingly demanding academic schedule," he said. "I think that it’s become as important to my emotional wellness as it is to my physical fitness.”
The University of New Mexico (6-4) fell 4-2 on Friday to the University of Utah (14-1) before taking down the University of California, Santa Barbara (5-4) on Sunday in a dramatic 4-3 win. In doubles play against the University of Utah, the Lobos appeared to be on their way to snatching the doubles point from the Utes after the duo of seniors Bart Van Leijsen and Jorge Escutia beat Utah junior David Micevski and freshman Randy Cory 6-4. But soon after, junior Ricky Hernandez-Tong and sophomore Dominic West fell to junior Joe Woolley and senior Egbert Weverink 6-4, and on court three Utah junior Dan Little and sophomore Azat Hankuliyev quickly followed up with a 6-4 win over UNM freshman Stepan Holis and senior Sean Baklini to give the Utes the doubles point.
Former University of New Mexico football player Brian Urlacher has been busy lately, picking up Hall of Fame selections for his collegiate and professional playing careers. Urlacher was already a member of UNM's Ring of Honor, but joined the ranks of the College Football Hall of Fame in December of 2017. He was a versatile player for New Mexico, logging plays as a linebacker, safety and on special teams as well. During his time at UNM, he garnered All-American honors twice and amassed some impressive statistics.
Protein is consumed to help aid muscle repair and increase muscle growth, but protein itself does not constitute a negative repercussion unless the consumer mismanages their protein intake. Protein consumption is a common aspect of many people’s normal workout procedure. The amount of different kinds of protein that is available to people ranges from organic, to powder, to shakes and to bars. Kurt Escobar, a UNM Ph.D. student and undergraduate professor specializing in Exercise Science at the University of New Mexico, said the idea that different forms of protein have different varying levels of effectiveness is not true.
Growing up I was always into sports. Playing them, watching them but, most of all, talking about them. I remember in my younger days watching College Gameday with Lee Corso and always looking forward to waking up at 9 a.m. to hear him and his crew’s predictions on the upcoming college football games. To me, that’s where the real fun was. Growing up, for most of my elementary and middle school years, I had dreams and aspirations of being on Sportscenter and talking about the day’s highlights. But like time, change in myself—and my interests—was always inevitable. I was still just a young boy, learning new things about myself each and every day. Being on Sportcenter, being an anchor on set, wasn’t for me. What was for me, though, was still being involved in sports somehow and someway.
First off, I don’t care about college sports, but I do care about college athletes. I don’t have a “team,” and I’ve never been to a game. However, that does not take away from the fact that people are placing themselves into a brutal arena, unpaid for the work they do, for the sake of entertainment. Athletes are working 40 hours a week minimum at their sport — a full-time job on top of classes. They are limited by schedules and practices. Athletes cannot control their image, endorse products or receive payment for autographs unlike other “amateurs." This arbitrary rule is enforced across sports, not just the money-makers like football or basketball.
I really don’t care for sports. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Lobos, but hear me out. Student-athletes lay it all on the line for a chance to make professional sports their career. Some of them make it, but most of them do not. If we look to the numbers, it seems that only one party is guaranteed to profit from this relationship: the NCAA and their partners. For example, according to the NCAA’s estimated probability of competing in professional sports, out of the 18,684 student-athletes playing men’s basketball in 2017, 4,152 were draft eligible. There were 60 draft spots open, and only 44 players were drafted — making the probability of being drafted pro from NCAA men's basketball 1.1 percent.
For the first time ever, the University of New Mexico's all-girl cheerleading team will be playing STUNT during the Big 12 Meet, Friday through Sunday in Oklahoma City. As a freshman on the UNM all-girl team, this is super exciting for me. I have cheered for a long time and competed in a variety of competitions — both high school and all-star, at the state, national and international levels.
It is not accustomed to playing games on Sunday, but the University of New Mexico men's basketball team could use a win any way it could get it — and it came up big in crunch time to do just that. New Mexico (15-14, 10-6 MW) won its third straight game to elevate its overall record to above .500 for the first time since the opening games of the season, gutting out a 91-90 victory over UNLV on Sunday afternoon. Things went back and forth throughout the game, and things got chippy at times as the referee's whistle began to blow with more frequency as both teams seemed to give everything they had to hold on to their place in the conference standings.
For the first time in the history of the University of New Mexico hockey team, the Lobos have skated into postseason play and will compete in the ACHA National Championships. New Mexico went undefeated in its first 11 games to start the season and never looked back, posting an impressive 20-4-1 record along the way. Head coach Grant Harvey said the team was overlooked in the past and felt some politics kept New Mexico out of the postseason mix in previous seasons. But with the selection process, including an algorithm with defined criteria and the team's impressive résumé, there was no question this season's effort was good enough to warrant a bid to nationals.
It’s a rare occasion that there’s a moment of calm during a basketball game, especially one that is as close as the game the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team played against Wyoming last Wednesday.
Fans of the University of New Mexico men's basketball team probably know about the potential and the growth of junior guard Troy Simons throughout this season, but many may not know the path that landed him in a Lobo uniform. Simons led the nation in NCJAA scoring during the 2016-17 season while playing for the Polk State Eagles, torching the nets with 26.3 points per game. The 6-foot-3-inch guard said he wasn't used to playing college basketball and learned a lot from his time as an Eagle.
Solutions by The State News
