Lobo women expect a battle in stormy San Diego
Feb. 6—San Diego is no beach vacation spot for the UNM women's basketball team this year.
The Lobos arrived in Southern California on Tuesday to find a rare mixture of rain, wind and generally unpleasant conditions ahead of Wednesday's matinee contest at San Diego State. A slow-moving storm in the region triggered mudslides and even a tornado warning in the area on Monday.
"Brutal," UNM coach Mike Bradbury said late Tuesday. "I've really never seen it like this out here."
The Lobos are hoping for calmer conditions inside Viejas Arena, where they'll take on the rival Aztecs for the first time this season. Smooth sailing, however, seems unlikely.
UNM and SDSU have engaged in one nailbiter after another in recent matchups, including all three meetings last season. The Lobos won 83-78 at the Pit, lost 65-61 in San Diego and dropped a painful 69-68 decision in the Mountain West tournament quarterfinals in Las Vegas, Nevada, when Aniyah Augmon's reverse layup rolled off the rim in the closing seconds.
"It's always a battle with San Diego State," Bradbury said. "We're absolutely expecting another one (Wednesday)."
UNM (16-7, 7-3) is hoping to shake off Saturday's 62-56 loss to conference-leading UNLV, which snapped the Lobos' five-game winning streak. The Lobos missed a chance to grab a share of first place and pull off a season sweep of the Rebels (19-2, 9-1), but Bradbury said there were positves to take away from Saturday's game.
"I think we gained confidence from our games against UNLV," he said. "Before and during the game Saturday, we expected to win and we had a chance to win. It came down to a couple of key plays, some missed free throws. Those things happen, but they stand out when it's a close game like that."
San Diego State (14-9, 5-5) will be looking to right the ship after a blowout 82-50 loss Saturday at Colorado State. The Aztecs defeated the Rams in overtime at home earlier this season.
The difference? SDSU has been much better at home this season and was missing starting point guard Abby Prohaska in Saturday's rematch with CSU. The Rams took full advantage, scoring 25 points off SDSU turnovers.
Prohaska's availability versus UNM is uncertain. Regardless, the Lobos are expecting a difficult environment.
Wednesday's game will be San Diego State's third "Field Trip Game" with an 11 a.m. local tip this season. The first two drew an average of 3,308 fans — most of them bussed in from area schools. Overall, SDSU averages 1,712 fans per home game.
The larger, noisier crowds have not necessarily helped the Aztecs, who lost to Stanford (85-44) and UNLV (67-60) in their previous Field Trip games.
Bradbury said he's more concerned about how his team attacks San Diego State's defense. UNM struggled mightily in the first half against UNLV before finally finding an effective rhythm in the third quarter.
"Hopefully we'll have some transition opportunities (against San Diego State)," Bradbury said. "Other than that, we have to move the ball side to side and work for shots we can make. We settled for too many poor shots in the first half against UNLV. In the second half we were a lot better."
CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN: Coming off a career-best 25 points against UNLV, UNM's Nyah Wilson ranks third in scoring (18.5 points per game) in MWC play, trailing only CSU's McKenna Hofschild (27.5 ppg) and the Rebels' Desi-Rae Young (22.1 ppg). Hofschild has taken 99 shots in league games, while Young has attempted 90, and Wilson has tried 66.
