Jeffery Washington/Star-Telegram via AP

UNM's Brandi Kimble races for a loose ball against TCU's Adrianne Ross. Kimble led the Lobos in scoring Sunday (16 points) and played all 45 minutes, but she shot 6-for-22 in an overtime loss. Ross, a Hobbs High School graduate, scored eight.

Jeffery Washington/Star-Telegram via AP

TCU's Helena Sverrisdotti looks to pass while guarded by New Mexico's Jessica Kielpinski (left) and Angela Hartill. The Lobos lost 59-51 Sunday and sit fifth in the Mountain West Conference.

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It was "almost" again for Don Flanagan's Lobos.

The University of New Mexico women's basketball team almost made the big plays needed to win a big game.

They almost outplayed a team down to the final buzzer.

They almost beat a Mountain West Conference team ahead of them in the league standings.

Almost.

The Lobos jumped to a 16-4 lead and had a chance to win in regulation before rolling over in overtime and losing 59-51 Sunday at Texas Christian University.

"Am I satisfied? No. Am I happy about it? No. It's a loss," said Flanagan on his postgame radio show.

"I think we could have walked out of here with a victory. I'm disturbed at that. I'm trying to find something that we can do down the stretch a little better."

What hurt the Lobos down the stretch in Fort Worth was senior leader Dionne Marsh's fouling out 29 seconds into the five-minute overtime.

The Horned Frogs scored the first six points in OT to take a 52-46 lead. UNM senior Brandi Kimble knocked down a 3-pointer from the baseline to make it 52-49 and the Frogs then ran off seven unanswered points to take charge 59-49.

Kimble, who finished the game with 16 points and 11 rebounds, got a meaningless layup with 10.1 seconds to play to form the 59-51 final.

"As soon as Dionne fouled out, that limited our opportunities. We got stagnant again," said Flanagan.

The defeat marked another opportunity lost for UNM to beat a team ahead of the Lobos in the MWC standings.

UNM has been swept by Wyoming and TCU, lost at Utah (60-57) and lost to Brigham Young (41-38) in The Pit.

If the Lobos don't turn things around quickly, especially with a win at BYU, Flanagan's Lobos might be looking at a No. 5 seed for the MWC Tournament.

That would mean UNM's likely path to the tourney title and an NCAA bid would be with wins over the No. 4 seed, the No. 1 seed and either the No. 2 or No. 3 seed.

If the standings stay as they are, that would mean UNM would have to beat BYU (5), Utah (1) and either TCU (2) or Wyoming (3).

That's a tough hill to climb, especially with no wins over those teams in the regular season. And, so far, UNM doesn't have any.

The Lobos almost looked like they had caught TCU flat after the Horned Frogs' Wednesday-night win over Wyoming.

Almost.

UNM ran to an 11-0 lead, and an Amy Beggin field goal at 8:30 pushed UNM up 16-4.

The Frogs didn't score until Adrianne Ross, a Hobbs High product, hit a jumper at the 12:15 mark to make it 11-2.

The Lobos led 24-11 before TCU scored seven straight points to form UNM's 24-18 halftime lead.

The Frogs opened the second half with a 12-0 run to take a 30-24 lead and it looked like the quicker Frogs might be on their way to another blowout victory on their home court.

Marsh and Begin then combined for nine points sandwiched around a TCU field goal and UNM led 33-32.

The teams took turns grabbing the lead down the stretch and both teams had decent shots to avoid overtime.

TCU ran the clock down down to eight seconds and Ross threw up an off-balance shot that drew nothing but air and went out of bounds. UNM brought the ball in with 6.6 seconds to play and Beggin drove down the court and kicked it into the corner, but UNM could not get off a shot before the buzzer sounded.

"We were trying to push the ball down the court and kick it back. and the player that entered it never got (close) behind the ball," said Flanagan. "Amy had a shot, I thought, and didn't (take it). She should have shot it.

"We stopped them, did it defensively and did a nice job defensively, and then we got down to the other end and had a shot at it."

The loss dropped UNM to 13-11 overall and 5-6 in MWC. TCU is 16-9 and 9-2. The race for NCAA at-large bids in the MWC appears to be down to Utah, TCU and Wyoming with Utah nearing at "lock" status.

Flanagan said he told his players that they need to learn how to finish games with victories and not be satisfied simply with good efforts.

"When you get to that position, finish it," said Flanagan. "There's no sense us feeling bad after a game where we've played the game to win most of the game and then, at the end, you let them outexecute you or outhustle you.

"Let's close it out and win the game. They (the Horned Frogs) closed it out better than we did."