Trampled: Lobo women fizzle in second half at Colorado

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Destinee Hooks put the ball in the basket with regularity for the UNM women’s basketball team Thursday night in Boulder, Colorado, scoring a game-high 22 points in a losing cause.

Hooks was the only Lobo in double figures while host Colorado had five players score 10 points, blowing UNM away, 84-59, with a second half storm.

As for that oh-boy moment, Hooks ended up putting the ball in the basket even when she wasn’t trying. Her attempted lob to Emma Najjuma on an inbounds pass instead banked into the hoop for a turnover, one of 21 giveaways that effectively doused the Lobos’ hopes of a road upset.

UNM stayed right with the much taller Buffaloes in the first half, trailing just 33-32 after Alyssa Hargrove missed an open 3-pointer just before the buzzer. The third quarter was an entirely different story.

A putback by Jessie Joaquim got the Lobos within two points at 40-38 with 6:12 left in the quarter. Then the Buffaloes caught fire. They reeled off eight straight points and hit seven consecutive field-goal attempts to quickly grab a 51-40 advantage.

Colorado put together a 9-0 run later in the quarter to eliminate any remaining suspense. The Buffs shot sizzling 54.3% in the second half, while UNM went ice cold (26.5%) and turned the ball over 13 times.

“In the second half they punched us and we didn’t punch back,” Lobos coach Mike Bradbury said. “Destinee competed really hard and had the right attitude, but we needed more players to compete like that, especially in the second half.”

Along with Hooks, freshman Laila Abdurraqib was a bright spot for the Lobos. Abdurraqib finished with nine points and six rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench. Nayli Padilla chipped in eight points, while Clarissa Craig scored seven — five of them in the game’s first five minutes.

Anaelle Dutat was the catalyst for Colorado’s second-half explosion, finishing with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Fellow transfers Claire O’Connor, Desiree Wooten and freshman Jade Crook also reached double-digit points for Buffaloes.

“(Dutat) hurt us bad,” Bradbury said. “Colorado obviously did a great job with the transfer portal. But I’m more concerned about the way we played in the second half, bad offense, poor shots and turnovers, we let them get in transition way too often.”

UNM was able to answer CU scoring runs in the half, rallying from 6-0 and 18-10 deficits to take the lead. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Kaia Foster and Hooks gave the Lobos a 25-20 advantage midway through the second quarter.

New Mexico had the edge from 3-point range, hitting nine to Colorado’s four, but the paint and points-off-turnovers categories were dominated by the home team. The Buffaloes outscored UNM 50-24 inside and 27-7 capitalizing on Lobos’ giveaways.

All 12 players in uniform saw action for the Lobos, who had four freshmen on the floor over the final five minutes. UNM was again without junior Cacia Antonio, who was ruled ineligible for the season’s first three games.

The Lobos return home to host North Carolina A&T on Sunday, but Bradbury does not plan to start preparation for that game right away.

“We need to learn from this,” he said of Thursday’s contest. “We’re not going to throw it out, we’re going to take a hard look at it and make adjustments. We showed how competitive we could be in the first half. It’s got to be like that for four quarters.”