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UNM Women's Basketball: Lobos advance to MWC tourney championship with 65-53 win over Wyoming
Briody leads Lobos with 21 points
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LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The Lobos are still breathing fire.
The University of New Mexico women's basketball team unleashed another round of heavyweight punches and seized a 65-53 win over Wyoming Friday afternoon in the Mountain West Conference tournament.
No. 3 seed UNM (23-8) advances to the championship game, where it will face BYU at 2 p.m. MST Saturday. The Lobos are 3-0 in conference tournament title games.
“I knew just looking at everyone's faces again before this game that we were going to come out ready to play,” senior guard Katie Montgomery said. “We have that intensity you need to win here. We're all really determined. We had it before our last game against UNLV and we had it again today.”
No. 2 seed Wyoming put up a tougher fight than the sixth-seeded Rebels did during UNM's 80-52 rout of UNLV Wednesday.
The Lobos raced to a 21-9 lead over Wyoming with 7:43 left in the first half, but the Cowgirls countered with a 7-0 run to cut UNM's lead to 21-16 with 4:19 to play. UNM led 29-28 at the half.
Wyoming jumped to a 32-31 at 18:55 of the second half before the Lobos snared the momentum again.
UNM rattled off an 8-0 run to take a 39-32 lead. The Lobos quickly pushed their lead to 11, grabbing a 45-34 advantage at the 13:03 mark in the second half.
The Cowgirls cut UNM's lead to six points at the 7:28 mark and again at 6:33, but they never got any closer.
Freshman guard Amy Beggin slammed the door shut on a Wyoming comeback with a four-point play, hitting a 3-pointer deep in the left corner while being fouled by Cowgirl Justyna Podziemska. Beggin converted the free-throw.
The play pushed UNM ahead 64-50 with 4:20 left in the game.
“I knew she was a good shot-blocker, but I also knew I could hit the shot and it would be big for us,” Beggin said. “It was awesome. I knew once I hit the free-throw, we weren't giving up that lead.”
Wyoming coach Joe Legerski said his team battled but couldn't overcome leads the Lobos quickly amassed in the second half.
“New Mexico answered every time,” Legerski said. “They came down and made big shot after big shot. All of a sudden, you're playing well but you're not closing the gap. I just thought that that's what ended up happening today.”
Senior guard Julie Briody led the Lobos with 21 points and eight rebounds, while junior forward Dionne Marsh added 13 and junior guard Brandi Kimble chipped in 11.
Wyoming junior forward Hanna Zavecz led the Cowgirls with 22 points and forward Megan McGuffey added 21. The duo went 7-of-10 from 3-point range.
Zavecz played most of the second half with four fouls, while UNM senior forward Timi E-Nunu fouled out of the game with 7:28 left.
UNM shot 45 percent from the field and 73 percent from the free-throw line, but the Lobos posted their second consecutive poor shooting game from 3-point range. The team went 4-of-12 beyond the arc for 33 percent. UNM shot 50 percent from the floor in the second half = 15-of-30.
Wyoming shot 42 percent from the field and 67 percent from the free-throw line. The Cowgirls hit 40-percent from 3-point range in the first half, nailing long bombs to get back in the game, but they only hit 30 percent in the second half.
The Lobos dominated the boards, grabbing a 33-26 advantage and 11-6 edge on the offensive glass.
“I'm really proud of our effort today,” UNM coach Don Flanagan said. “Our players went out there and really pushed themselves on defense and played the kind of game we needed today.”
The victory over Wyoming likely clinched an at-large spot for the Lobos in the NCAA Tournament, but Montgomery said the Lobos are still pushing to win the title and grab the league's automatic bid.
“We've come this far and we don't want to let up until we win the championship,” Montgomery said. “We lost in the first round (of the tournament) last year and won the tournament every other year I've been here. We like winning a lot more.”
