Lobos head to Utah, seeking 20th win of season

The UNM women's basketball team will be shooting for some nice, even numbers Wednesday night.

Which even numbers exactly?

Twenty, 200 and possibly four could all have nice rings for the Lobos.

With three games remaining in the regular season, New Mexico visits Utah State for a potential benchmark Mountain West game. UNM (19-9, 11-6) needs a win to strengthen its hopes for a first-round bye in the upcoming MWC tournament and can ill afford a letdown against the struggling Aggies (6-20, 2-15).

Two other key conference games Wednesday will allow the fifth-place Lobos to gain ground with a win. First-place San Diego State (16-1 MWC) visits Boise State (13-4) while UNLV (13-4) travels to Colorado State (12-5). A New Mexico victory combined with a CSU loss would lift the Lobos into a tie with the Rams in the battle for a No. 4 tournament seed and a first-round bye.

But UNM's players and coaches will be more focused on No. 20 — as in their 20th win of the season. The Lobos picked up key wins over Grand Canyon and Air Force last week and want to keep building positive momentum.

"We want to be playing our best basketball at the end of the season," UNM coach Mike Bradbury said. "We can't control what happens in other games, so we'll just try to get No. 20 and see where that puts us."

As it turns out, win No. 20 would also be Bradbury's 200th win in 10 seasons at New Mexico. He has a 199-112 record with the Lobos and a 377-229 career mark that includes previous stints at Wright State and Morehead State.

Bradbury trails only Don Flanagan, who went 340-168 at UNM from 1996-2011, on the school's career victories list. Bradbury said he only recently became aware he was closing in on No. 200.

"It came up in a meeting and I was a little bit surprised," he said. "You get so focused on the next game, you don't really think about those things until the end of the season. I have thought about it some since then. It's a nice number."

UNM is seeking to nail down its sixth 20-win season under Bradbury (a span that includes the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season) and secure a tournament bye for the eighth time in 10 years. The Lobos have the Mountain West's second-best conference winning percentage during Bradbury's tenure, trailing only UNLV.

"Winning 200 in 10 years shows consistency," Bradbury said. "That's the thing I feel good about. People say we haven't done well in the conference tournament and I don't deny that, but the overall success has been good. Hopefully we can make some noise in the tournament this year, but right now we just want to get No. 20."

POST NOTES: UNM has received strong rebounding production from posts Jessie Joaquim and Emma Najjuma, both of whom rank among the MWC's top 10 in rebounds per league game. Post scoring has been erratic since senior Clarissa Craig went out with a knee injury, but Joaquim and Najjuma stepped up in the Lobos' wins last week.

Najjuma racked up a double-double (12 points, 12 rebounds) against Grand Canyon, and Joaquim followed up with 11 points, 13 boards against Air Force.

"Sometimes it's me, sometimes it's her," Joaquim said. "Emma's doing a great job and we both just want to help the team. When it's my turn, I need to step up."

UNM's offense is guard-driven and its top six scorers this season are all guards. Post scoring is welcome, Bradbury said, but it often depends on opponents' game plans.

"It's really about what the defense gives us," he said. "Rebounding is their No. 1 job, but we tell Jessie and Emma to make themselves available and our guards need to look for them when they can."

Joaquim added, "With our offensive system, we just need to be ready to catch the ball and ready to finish. Whether it's a pass or a rebound, just be ready."