UNM women strong in first half, but fall to Texas Tech
Nov. 29—Texas Tech simply had more options than the University of New Mexico women's basketball team on Sunday.
The Lady Raiders lit things up from the perimeter in the first half, then pounded the ball inside in the second on its way to a 82-75 win over the Lobos in the final day of the Van Chancellor Classic in Katy, Texas.
UNM (5-3) stayed close throughout a frenetic first half, but the Lobos could not stop or match the physical post play of Texas Tech (6-1) in the final 20 minutes.
"We had to make a decision on how to defend them," Lobos coach Mike Bradbury said in a postgame phone interview. "In the first half we took away their posts and their guards killed us. We made an adjustment at halftime to pressure their guards and they pounded it inside. Give them credit. We didn't have a lot of time to work on this game plan and we couldn't execute it."
LaTascya Duff scored a game-high 21 points, hitting five 3-pointers, and Shaiquel McGruder finished with 20 points. But once again, the scoring totals reflected Texas Tech's more diverse options. UNM's five starters accounted for all of its points, while the Lady Raiders got 18 points and 10 rebounds from their bench.
Both teams came out firing in the first quarter, as Texas Tech hit its first six shots (three of them 3-pointers) but led just 17-16 at the first media timeout and 27-25 after one quarter.
The Raiders threatened to pull away late in the second quarter, using a 9-0 run to build a 49-34 lead. Lexy Hightower, who scored a team-high 17 points for TTU, buried her third 3-pointer during the surge. At that point, the Raiders were 6-for-6 from long range.
But UNM did not fold, getting five points from Duff during a 7-0 run to end the half and trimming the deficit to 49-41. The Lobos got as close as 51-47 on a Jaedyn De La Cerda 3 early in the third quarter, but that's when Texas Tech began asserting its muscle inside.
Khadija Faye scored seven straight points in the paint during a 9-0 run that rebuilt the lead to 60-47. The Lobos were unable to get closer than an eight-point margin the rest of the way. Antonia Anderson finished with 14 points, De La Cerda had 13, and LaTora Duff collected seven points and nine assists. De La Cerda surpassed 1,000 points for her Lobo career.
"Offensively we were fine and our kids battled," Bradbury said. "We wanted to get challenged by good teams down here and we did. Hopefully, we'll learn from it."
