Lobos look to put some heat on the Cowgirls
Wyoming women are undefeated in MW play
Looking for a temperature disparity? Laramie, Wyo., could be an ideal destination today.
Outside, it’s expected to be a typical January day in southern Wyoming; cloudy, good chance of snow with temperatures never climbing above freezing.
Inside the University of Wyoming’s Arena Auditorium, expect a stark contrast. The local women’s basketball team has been sizzling hot of late, and the visiting University of New Mexico Lobos draw the difficult assignment of trying to cool the Wyoming Cowgirls down.
Wyoming (14-3 overall, 6-0 Mountain West) is sporting an eight-game winning streak, its longest in nine years, and has been riding roughshod over MWC opponents. The Cowgirls have outscored their first six league foes by an average of 20.2 points per game and have yet to be seriously threatened.
UNM coach Mike Bradbury is making his first visit to Laramie and understands why playing the Cowgirls is no day at the beach.
“They’re very efficient on offense and can attack you a lot of different ways,” Bradbury said. “They shoot the 3 at almost 40 percent (39.1), which is ridiculous, and they can also go big and hammer the ball inside. Defending them will be a challenge.”
The Lobos (9-8, 5-2) are coming off a solid offensive outing of their own in Wednesday’s 75-68 home win over Boise State. Bradbury switched up his normal start-
ing lineup, inserting Jaisa Nunn and Alex Lapeyrolerie in place of Kianna Keller and Jayda Bovero. It paid off as all five UNM starters scored in double figures.
Bradbury said Friday he expects to start the same lineup against Wyoming, which features one of the nation’s stingiest defenses (54 points allowed per game).
“Boise State scores so much,” Bradbury said, “I thought we needed our five best offensive players to keep up with them. With Wyoming, we just need to find ways to score, period.”
Putting the 6-foot-3 Nunn on the floor alongside the 6-5 van der Keijl often provides UNM with mismatches on the offensive end. Nunn’s ability to hit mid-range jumpers and drive to the basket can make her particularly tough to defend.
There is a tradeoff on the defensive end, however, as neither Nunn nor van der Keijl can match Keller’s mobility.
“All three (posts) are still going to play,” Bradbury said. “I just felt like we’d been getting off to bad starts and we needed some kind of spark. For one game it worked. Moving forward, we’ll see.”
The Lobos used just seven players against Boise State as junior guard Laneah Bryan was unavailable after rolling an ankle during Tuesday’s practice. Bryan returned to practice on a limited basis Friday and is questionable for today’s contest, Bradbury said. Through 17 games UNM leads the nation in defensive rebounds per game (35) and ranks third in total rebounds per game (48.1). The Lobos outrebounded Boise State 52-46 on Wednesday, but Bradbury was frustrated by the Broncos’ 14 offensive boards, which helped the visitors amass 80 shots to UNM’s 68.
“They whipped us on time of possession, too,” Bradbury said. “Good thing no one tracks that in basketball.”
More evident on the stat sheet was that UNM committed just 11 fouls against Boise State, continuing a season-long pattern. The Lobos rank 12th nationally in fewest fouls per game (13.5).