Box Score Las Vegas, N.M. - The NMHU Women's Basketball team fell to the Thunderwolves of CSU-Pueblo at home, by the final score of 86-83. The Cowgirls were the first to put points on the board, but the Thunderwolves quickly reversed that situation and took control of the game.
Cowgirl
China Smith came off the bench to make a tip-in with 13:32 remaining in the half to retake the lead by one point. The Cowgirls would have a seven point lead when the buzzer sounded for halftime.
NMHU was the first to score in the second half of play and looked to be in good shape, but the Thunderwolves kept hitting three-point shots while been heavily guarded by the Cowgirls. CSU-Pueblo was able to cut the lead down to two points with 8:37 left to play in the second half. After a hand full of lead changes, the Thunderwolves would manage to tie the game at 83-83 with 1:35 left to play.
The John A. Wilson Complex was rocking with chants of “defense”. With a back and forth tussle, CSU would drain a three-point basket with five seconds left unfortunately the Cowgirls would not get the chance to answer with a shot of their own, thus falling to the RMAC second-ranked Thunderwolves. With the loss the Cowgirls, led by Head Coach Tiffany Darling, fall to a 3-3 record in the RMAC and 3-7 in overall play.
Junior guard
Alyssa Lopez showed why she has earned the nickname “The Silent Assassin,” by quietly racking up an outstanding 27 points in her 38 minutes on the court. Lopez exploded in the first half with 14 points, two assists and four rebounds. In the second half, Lopez maintained her rhythm by adding 13 points and shooting 5-9 from the field. Overall on the night she shot 9-16 from the field, 3-7 from behind the three-point arc, and 6-8 from the charity stripe.
The second leading scorer for tonight's game was freshman guard, and Belen, N.M. native
Michelle Traynham. She had 19 points going 5-8 from the field and shooting 4-6 from the three point line. Traynham also added in two assists to her night's totals.
Rounding out the top three scorers for the Cowgirls was junior guard
Indre Mikelenaite who had 18 points going 8-14 from the field. Mikelenaite also added in four assists and four rebounds in her 32 minutes on the court.
The Cowgirls were out-scored by the Thunderwolves bench 28-13 and CSU-Pueblo had four players end up in double digits in scoring. Center Laurel Kerasley was the Thunderwolves leading scorer with 19 points in her 34 minutes on the court.
The Cowgirls will continue conference action again, on 1/4, as they travel to Denver, Colo. to face the Roadrunners of Metropolitan State University. The Roadrunners are currently in fifth place in the RMAC with a 3-1 conference record and 5-4 in overall play. The game is scheduled for a 5:00 p.m. tip-off time, with the Cowboys taking to the court shortly after the completion of the women's game. If you can't make it to Denver to watch your Cowgirls in action, you can click
HERE to watch the game LIVE on the America One network.
GO COWGIRLS!!!
