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Richard Stevens: Lobos win sends message: `We're back!'

By Richard Stevens
Thursday, March 8, 2007

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — It wasn't simply a sharp and vicious blow to the UNLV Rebels' gut and ego.

It was a warning shot across the bow of every team in the women's Mountain West Conference tournament.

It was a statement that the team which had won the MWC title in 2003, 2004, 2005 - but not 2006 - is back.

The University of New Mexico Lobos simply demolished and outclassed the UNLV Rebels on Wednesday in the Thomas & Mack Center.

The final score of 80-52 could have been worse.

"I guess you could say we made a statement," said UNM's Brandi Kimble. "We said that we have one goal up here and that's to win the tournament."

The way the Lobos crushed UNLV has to go down as sheer intimidation for the rest of the MWC survivors.

Shouldn't you be very, very afraid when a Lobos team playing in front of a predominantly Lobos crowd acts like it owns the place?

Well, maybe if you aren't the No. 1 seed Brigham Young Cougars - the MWC regular-season champs.

And the 2006 MWC tourney champs.

The BYU Cougars followed the Lobos' example by making a similar statement in a 72-40 mangling of Air Force.

The Cougars looked a lot like, well, Lobos. BYU was smooth, focused and ornery. Just like the Lobos.

The message here might be that the two best teams in the league are poised to prove, well, they are still the best teams.

But the road to the MWC title game at 1 p.m. Saturday should get tougher for both Lobos and Cougars.

UNM advances to the 1 p.m. semifinal Friday to play a physical and motivated Wyoming team.

The Cougars advance to play Utah, a young team that narrowly slipped by TCU with a 68-67 win.

The tournament becomes a game of shifting tempos for UNM.

The Rebels lean on quickness and pressure to win games. The Cowgirls mostly lean. They are muscle and mass moving behind picks, picks and more picks.

"We played very well against UNLV's style and now we play a team that plays very differently," said UNM coach Don Flanagan.

"I used to think we played better half-court, but now I think maybe we are playing better against pressure. It's very difficult to win a tournament because you have to come out and play well against different tempos."

The Lobos' final three regular-season games were against MWC teams that like to be quick - San Diego State, UNLV and TCU. And then UNLV again.

The Cowgirls are plow-girls when it comes to run-and-gun basketball. Wyoming beat SDSU 56-44 on Wednesday.

UNM's Julie Briody isn't so sure the Lobos' 28-point win over UNLV will put any fear into the Cowgirls.

"It might just give Wyoming an edge because they know now they have to come at us," Briody said.

Still, the Lobos have one edge. Thomas & Mack has become a mini-Pit, erupting in pure love for Lobos and nastiness for anything anti-Lobo.

"Our fans were amazing," said Briody. "It was almost like being in The Pit."

Actually, it was a bit better. This was UNM's biggest MWC win of the season.

That has to say something.