NMSU women Drop WAC Home Opener to Nevada
LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The New Mexico State women’s basketball team dropped its conference home opener 65-46 to Nevada after the Wolf Pack broke open the game in the second half inside the Pan American Center Wednesday night.
Nevada, who led 30-27, ran away from NM State in the second half outscoring the Aggies 35-19 after the break. UN’s Tahnee Robinson showed why she is the leading scorer in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), posting 17 points after halftime en route to a game-high 25 points.
The home team struggled to make shots in the second half on 7-of-24 shooting for a 29.2 percentage from the floor. The Wolf Pack out-rebounded the Aggies 22-12 in the second half. No Aggie player scored more than seven after the break.
Senior guard Jasmine Lowe scored 14 to lead the Aggies. Lowe ran off the first seven points of the second half for the Aggies but Nevada held her off the scoreboard the rest of the way. Junior forward Tabytha Wampler added 12 points with three buckets and 6-of-6 from the line.
Wampler has now made 19 consecutive free throws for NM State since her last miss against UTEP in the final minutes on Jan. 2. She is a perfect 19-of-19 in WAC play. Wampler made her three attempts at Hawai’i and all 10 at San Jose State prior to her half dozen tonight from the foul line.
NM State shot 30 percent in the game while Nevada cashed in on 43 percent of its shots. The Wolf Pack dominated the boards 44-29. The Aggies won the turnover battle forcing 19 UN miscues and committing just 13. The Wolf Pack reserves outscored the Aggie bench 23-4 on the night.
NM State dropped to 8-9 overall and 2-1 in the WAC after the loss. Nevada improved to 2-1 in the league and 13-3 overall.
Nevada opened the scoring with a bucket from senior forward Shavon Moore. The Aggies answered with four straight after baskets by junior forward Tabytha Wampler and senior guard Madison Spence for NM State’s first and largest lead of the game.
The squads were knotted at 10-10 at the first media timeout after a Spence basket with 14:07 remaining before the half. Nevada then went on an 8-2 run to build its largest lead of the half at 18-12 with 9:07 left.
NM State responded with a 7-0 rally of its own after another bucket from Spence and a trey and two from Lowe to take back the lead 19-18 at the 8:19 mark. The teams played even over the next five minutes to knot the score at 25-all. UN closed the half on a 5-2 run to make it 30-27 entering the locker rooms.
The Aggies forced 10 first-half turnovers and had five steals that led to nine points on the offensive end. NM State took 12 more shots but had just one more make than Nevada at the break as the Wolf Pack shot 42 percent and the Aggies 31 percent in the first half. Nevada led on the glass 22-17. NM State owned the paint in the first scoring 12 in the lane.
Lowe scored the first seven points after halftime for the Aggies to give NM State its only second-half lead at 32-30. The Wolf Pack put together a 19-6 run over the next eight minutes to make it 49-38 midway through the second.
The Aggies never recovered, scoring just eight points over the final 10 minutes of the game.
Robinson led all scorers with 25 while Nevada senior forward Shavon Moore posted a double-double with 10 boards and 10 points on the night.
NM State hits the road again this weekend to take on defending WAC champion Fresno State on Saturday, Jan. 15 at 7:00 MT. The game can be heard on the Aggie Sports Radio Network with Kyle Doperalski on KSNM 570 AM.
