Saturday night must have felt like deja vu for the CSU women’s basketball team.
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Traveling to the Pit to take on 13-11 New Mexico, the Rams came in on a 2 game win streak against Air Force and UNLV.
It seemed like it was just yesterday that CSU played New Mexico at home and fell to double digits in the second half in January.The Rams fell 56-71 New Mexico in Albuquerque, which dropped their record to 9-16 overall and 5-7 in the Mountain West.
In both games against the Lobos, the Rams fell after a strong first five minutes and were unable to counter the deficit in the second half.
CSU trailed 9-10 with 15:53 left in the first half, but New Mexico went on a 9-3 run over the next two and a half minutes to establish some breathing room.
Looking for a comeback with 3:45 left in the second half, CSU could not overcome the 65-50 deficit and ended up 15 points down.
New Mexico made 48.2 percent of its shots from the field compared to the Rams’ 35.4 percent.
“I thought we answered really well,” CSU coach Ryun Williams said. “They were shooting like crazy.”
Sophomore Antiesha Brown lead the Lobos with 16 points on the night on 6-11 shooting.
Giving a lot of credit to New Mexico and their explosive drives on offense, CSU looks forward to their next against on the road against Mountain West second place Fresno State.
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“We didn’t score consistently in the second half,” Williams said. “I am proud of the team… need to work on offense and defense in the upcoming game.”
Freshman Caitlin Duffy scored 17 points to bounce back from a nine point showing in the team’s initial meeting. She hit four of eight shots from behind the arc and had three rebounds.
“I wish I could have hit a few more,” Duffy said. “Towards the end of the season it is nice to grow and make those extra shots, but it is a lot better to win.”
New Mexico now moves to a 14-11 overall record and 6-6 in the Mountain West, controlling the fourth spot in the league standings.
Next, CSU will travel to Fresno State to take on the second place team in the MW.
“Tough teams and need a tough mentality,” junior Sam Martin said. “Need to look past this.”
