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FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Maybe it's best the New Mexico Lobos go home for a short stay before coming back to the north country of the Mountain West Conference.

The Lobos women's basketball players might need to conjure up a new mind-set.

Things were soft and easy Wednesday night in Fort Collins in a ho-hum 74-47 Lobos' romp over Colorado State.

Things will be hard and tough Sunday at Wyoming in a game to be televised by CSTV.

The Lobos played in a quiet, tomb-like gym in CSU's Moby Arena.

The Arena Auditorium in Laramie will have a pack-the-gym promotion on Sunday, and the Cowgirls are expecting a 6,000-plus crowd of Wyoming rowdies.

The Rams are the worst team in the MWC.

The Cowgirls are ranked No. 22 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll and are hot to snap a two-game losing skid.

"Things will be different," Lobos guard Amy Beggin said. "It will be a big game and it will be a tough game. It would be nice to get some revenge on them."

The revenge factor comes from the Lobos' 58-52 loss to Wyoming in The Pit on Jan. 9. The Lobos shot 37.5 percent from the field in defeat. UNM shot 54.4 percent against CSU on Wednesday night.

"If we can shoot in the high 40s or in the 50s, we can play with anybody in the conference," Lobos coach Don Flanagan said. "We shot 54 percent. Anytime you shoot 54 percent, you like it."

A factor in UNM's shooting percentage against CSU was taller Lobos shooting over shorter Rams.

"That's always nice," said UNM's Angela Hartill, who went 8-of-11 from the field and finished with 16 points.

The 6-foot-3 Hartill and 6-1 Dionne Marsh combined to go 17-of-24 from the floor for 39 points. Marsh scored a game-high 23 points and had a game-high seven rebounds.

"We had a little height advantage," Marsh said. "But sometimes when they are smaller, you have trouble keeping up with them."

Flanagan said he thought his inside players looked a little tired late in the game chasing after the smaller Rams.

He needs to hope fatigue isn't a factor Sunday in Laramie. The Lobos drove to Denver on Wednesday night and flew back to Albuquerque today. They practice in The Pit on Friday, then fly back to Denver on Saturday and bus up to Laramie.

The Cowgirls are not short, nor are they soft. In fact, they are a physical team that likes to pound on opponents.

"They have become one of our rivals in the conference," said Beggin, who had eight points, four rebounds and two steals against CSU. "We know they are good, and that makes it exciting and makes it easy to get up for them."

It probably wasn't easy to get up for the Rams. It might not have been necessary, either.

The loss dropped CSU to 2-19 overall and 0-8 in league. UNM is 12-9 and 4-4 heading into the second half of the MWC season.

"We are kind of starting over now with the second half of the conference, and we hope we can play the way we did the last two games," Marsh said.

Added Hartill: "When you lose to a team in the first half of conference, you really need to beat them in the second half to get even."

The Lobos put away CSU early by running to a 36-20 halftime lead when Marsh and Hartill combined to go 10-of-11 from the field for 20 points. Junior Amanda Adamson came off the bench to add seven points, one assist, one blocked shot and one steal in the first 20 minutes.

UNM outscored CSU 12-2 in the paint in the first half.

"We always want to get the ball inside, but now we are going in to the high post a little more," said Flanagan.

Beggin said another difference was effort.

"We wanted to come out and make sure CSU didn't play harder than we did," she said.

The CSU game was played in front of an announced crowd of 985, but there were probably less than 400 people in the gym.

"It was nice to be able to hear each other," Hartill said.

That probably will change Sunday at Laramie.

"It's on national TV, and they'll have a big crowd," Flanagan said.