"Honestly, we
played
down to their level,” said Vaughn after the game. “It was an
ugly win. That's
all I can say. You have those games.”
The source of
some of the
ugliness was the Lobos poor control and protection of the ball,
as New Mexico (6-1)
committed 25 turnovers. That the Wildcats were only able to
parlay the Lobos’
gaffes into 16 points explains why Weber State (0-6) was unable
to find its
first win of the season.
“Twenty five
turnovers is
unacceptable," said senior Caroline Durbin, who led all scorers
with 15
points. "I think they rattled us a bit in the first half. It
probably took
us a little bit too long to calm down."
Vaughn added 14
points and
eight rebounds as UNM piled up the majority of its points in the
paint – 46
points to the Wildcats 24. No other Lobos were in double figures
but Jayme
Jackson and Whitney Johnson each added eight points and Sara
Halasz added six
points and seven rebounds.
Weber State
made things
tough early on and the two teams were tied 6-6 five minutes into
the game. But
UNM outscored the Wildcats 17-5 over the next nine minutes to
take a 23-11 lead
and eventually led 33-18 at halftime.
UNM opened on a
16-7 run and
Weber State never challenged the Lobos in the second half.
Amanda Hughes
paced the
Wildcats with 14 points as WSU shot 22.4% (15 of 64) from the
field. Weber
State shot 16.7% (3 of 18) from 3-point range and got
outrebounded 54-to-32. Regina
Okoya added 10 points and 4 rebounds for the Wildcats.
UNM shot 45.2%
(28 of 62)
from the field and hit just 1 of 6 three point attempts. The
Lobos had 18
assists to eight for the visitors and UNM got 28 points from its
bench to 12
for Weber State.
"We have to
grow a
little bit more," said Sanchez. "You are going to have games
like
this. The biggest thing for me is we have to find a way to stop
the silly
mistakes, especially by the veterans. We are not going to beat
too many teams
playing the way we played today.
“We didn't play
our best
basketball, but we got a win."