Lobos facing big test against Lady Rebels

The season's first matchup against UNLV amounted to an early knockout. Can the UNM women's basketball team go the distance in Wednesday's rematch at the Pit?

Coach Mike Bradbury and the Lobos fully expect to have their chins tested. The Lady Rebels battered them with a 31-13 first quarter Dec. 20 in Las Vegas that effectively decided the outcome. UNM and UNLV played even (58-58) over the final three quarters, but the Lobos never really recovered from the Rebels' big early punches.

That win appeared to spark UNLV, which was 6-5 at the time but has gone 8-1 since and sits in second place in the Mountain West standings. UNM (13-7, 5-4 MWC) alternated three-game winning and losing streaks after its trip to Las Vegas, but righted the ship Saturday with a convincing 74-57 win at Air Force.

The Lobos find themselves in fifth place in the conference standings heading into Wednesday's game, which doubles as a chance to move up, and a shot at redemption.

"Sure, you've got the four-time defending league champ coming to town," Bradbury said. "We're excited. UNLV's really balanced, physical and they're playing well now, so it's a big challenge. But we've had two good days of practice and our players are looking forward to playing them again."

UNM will certainly need a better start if it's to turn the tables on UNLV — and it's probably fair to assume Wednesday's first quarter couldn't go much worse than the one the Lobos endured on Dec. 20. On that day, starting guard Joana Magalhães departed after just four minutes with a quad injury and several players, including leading scorer Destinee Hooks, were fighting a respiratory virus.

The Rebels came out swinging and used a 17-0 run that included two UNM technical fouls to take command.

"UNLV took it to us, beat us by (18 points)," senior Alyssa Hargrove said. "But we know that wasn't us and I think we're back to where we want to be now. We have to play a lot better this time and we know we can."

Job one for the Lobos is weathering another potential early storm. UNLV's starting lineup is stout and its top four scorers (Meadow Roland, Shelbee Brown, Aaliyah Alexander and Jasmyn Lott) have made a habit of getting the Rebels out of the gates quickly.

"Yeah, we've got to have a good start this time," Bradbury said. "We've got to be better in every area than we were in Las Vegas, but I think transition defense is probably the biggest thing. UNLV can score at every level, but when they start getting out in transition, that's when they're at their best."

A few Mountain West teams have managed to slow the Rebels down. Air Force, Nevada and San Diego State held UNLV under 65 points in regulation and all three games went to the wire. UNLV went on to defeat AFA (64-58) and Nevada (64-57), but lost to to SDSU (75-66) after scoring just three points in overtime.

UNM understandably would like nothing better than to make Wednesday's matchup a four-quarter scrap. Depth has not been a strength for the Rebels, who get 74% of their scoring from starters, while the Lobos average a MWC-best 25.9 bench points per game and have no one averaging more than 26.9 minutes per contest.

Still, UNLV proved in round one against UNM that it can land the big punch. The Rebels went 16-for-28 from 3-point range in that contest, led by Destiny Leo, who went 6-for-8.