Schedule for UNM basketball women lightens up down the stretch

Feb. 10—Crunch time has officially arrived for the University of New Mexico women's basketball team.

With six games left in the regular season, the Lobos are facing two options: find another gear or get left behind in the Mountain West Conference race.

After Thursday's 69-62 loss at Boise State, UNM is a middling 14-11 overall and 6-6 in league play with six games to go before the MWC tournament. Heading into Saturday's road matinee against Nevada (9-15, 6-7), the Lobos are in seventh place.

There's still ample time to move up. UNM will face two of the teams it is chasing (Wyoming and Air Force) and has an otherwise favorable closing schedule, including games against the bottom four teams in the standings (Nevada, San Jose State, Utah State and Fresno State).

But UNM has squandered its margin for error with a series of poor starts and a 1-5 Mountain West road record. The Lobos have to find their 'A' game and hold onto it over the next six games.

"We have to make sure we come out with the right mind-set," UNM coach Mike Bradbury said of Saturday's rematch with the Wolf Pack. "We played well against them at our place (an 88-58 victory), but that doesn't carry over. You start from scratch and they'll be looking to turn the tables on us. We have to be ready for that."

UNM has been forced to play catch-up in four of its six MWC road games, falling into double-digit first-half holes in losses at Wyoming, Colorado State, UNLV and Boise State. The Lobos led at halftime in just two MWC road contests — a 65-61 defeat at San Diego State and a blowout win at Utah State.

Thanks to the odd nature of this season's Mountain West race, UNM still has an opportunity to chase down a favorable tournament seeding spot. The Lobos have played 11 of 12 conference games against teams that, at the time, had winning league records. But the schedule eases up down the stretch.

The Lobos have played just one game against the league's three one-win teams (Utah State, Fresno State, San Jose State) and have the distinct disadvantage of playing the Bulldogs and Spartans just once in the Mountain West's unbalanced schedule.

Other contenders have padded their records against the three bottom-dwellers. Nevada, for example, is 5-0 against them.

Air Force (12-12, 7-5) has had the most favorable schedule of all. Not only are the Falcons 6-0 against the last-place trio, they face unbeaten UNLV and second-place San Diego State just once this season.

But while the schedule thus far has done UNM no favors, it presents a late opportunity. The Lobos will finish with four of six games against struggling opponents while the teams they are chasing go head-to-head.

"It's still in our hands," Bradbury said. "The goal is to go into the (Mountain West) tournament playing our best basketball and to hopefully put ourselves in a good spot. We've got six games left to do that."

And very little margin for error.

HOLDING PATTERN: Senior LaTascya Duff has hit something of a 3-point slump over her last three games, going 2-for-12 from long range in that span. Duff remains on the brink of UNM's career record for 3-pointers with 217. She is in third place, trailing Amy Beggin (218 from 2006-10) and Katie Montgomery (224 from 2003-07).

Saturday

WOMEN: UNM at Nevada, 2 p.m., 610 AM/95.9 FM, themw.com (streaming)