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Spoiler alert: Lobo women wary of visit to San Jose State
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Tough to figure. That’s Mike Bradbury’s general assessment of the San Jose State women’s basketball team.
Bradbury, the New Mexico women’s coach, had some extra time this week to scout and study the Spartans, the Lobos’ opponent for a Wednesday game at the Event Center in San Jose, California. UNM enjoyed its final open date of the Mountain West season over the weekend.
The timing was fortunate for the Lobos, who face SJSU just once this season and are unfamiliar with a Spartans team that’s changed significantly last season. Bradbury hopes the extra scouting time pays off.
“They’re good,” he said of the Spartans (10-16, 3-10 MWC). “They have two really strong 5 players and two of the better guards in the league. Watching them on video, I have a hard time understanding how their record is what it is.”
San Jose State has ranked among the Mountain West bottom feeders in recent seasons and is not in contention for one of the league’s first-round tournament byes in 2024-25. Still, coach April Phillips’ team has made strides, knocking off San Diego State, Nevada and Air Force this season and taking other MWC foes to the wire.
“They’re not easy to prepare for,” Bradbury said. “They switch out personnel and play a bunch of different defenses. We need to be really locked in for this one.”
The Lobos (14-12, 7-6) will be looking to build on one of their better performances — an 88-83 overtime win over Boise State last Thursday in the Pit. Senior Viané Cumber led the way with a career-best 27 points as UNM snapped a frustrating five-game losing streak and a rare four-game skid in the Pit.
“We needed a big win to get back on the right track,” Cumber said. “... We wanted to win for the fans. We’d kind of let them down the last couple games so it was important for us to put a full game together.”
UNM changed things up by employing a trapping 2-3 zone defense for most of the game against Boise State. The Lobos, as usual under Bradbury, have played primarily man-to-man defense this season.
New Mexico spent time working on both defenses during its open date, adding a few offensive wrinkles as well. With five regular-season games remaining and UNM pushing for a top-five MWC finish and first-round tournament bye, the Lobos don’t want to be too easy for their opponents to figure out.
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HAPPY HOMECOMING? Wednesday’s game will be a new experience in familiar surroundings for UNM senior Amhyia Moreland, who spent two seasons at San Jose State before transferring to New Mexico last summer. Moreland has not appeared at the Event Center as a visiting player.
“I hope she’s fired up and ready to go,” Bradbury said of Moreland, who is known for maintaining a poker face much of the time. “San Jose State has some good post players. A big game from Amhyia would be huge for us.”
CLOSING IN: With five 3-pointers against Boise State, Cumber increased her career total to 230, second most in program history. The Albuquerque native needs nine more to catch LaTascya Duff’s record of 239 3’s, set from 2020-23.
Cumber leads the MWC in 3-pointers made (72) and 3-point percentage (37.7%) among players averaging at least 2.5 triples per game.
EARLY CELEBRATION: The Lobos will celebrate Senior Day at Saturday’s 2 p.m. home game against Utah State. It is not UNM’s final home game of the season, which comes March 4 versus Air Force, but Bradbury felt a weekend day game would be more fitting for the event.
“I always prefer to have (Senior Day) at the last weekend home game,” he said. “It’s more convenient for the players’ families and we usually get bigger crowds on the weekends.”
UNM will honor seniors Cumber, Moreland and Hulda Joaquim on Saturday. The Lobos have five seniors on this season’s roster, but Alyssa Hargrove and redshirt Clarissa Craig have announced their intentions to play again next season.
