by LAS VEGAS, N.M. – Another strong defensive effort and 44 combined points from seniors Ashley Mitchell (Navajo Nation) and RaTanya Newsome(Tucson, AZ/Tucson High School) helped the Western New Mexico University women’s basketball team cruise to a 72-59 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference victory over in-state rival New Mexico Highlands University Saturday afternoon.
“Proud of the way we came out today, focused, and ready to guard a very well coached, dangerous team,” head coach Rusty Kennedy said. “Got to see if we can keep up the momentum we have going right now.”
The Lady Mustangs (10-7, 7-6 RMAC) limited the Cowgirls (4-13, 3-10 RMAC) to a 29.9 (20-67) field goal percentage, second-lowest of the season to grab their fourth straight win. Mitchell’s game-high 27 was also a season-high for her and the team as she went 9-of-15 from the field, including a pair of three-pointers. She also added 7-of-10 from the free throw line, seven rebounds and two assists. Newsome added 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting and posted three rebounds, three assists and two steals.
The win in Las Vegas was the first for WNMU since the 2007-08 season snapping a six-game slide. The victory marks the 10th of the season and leaves the Lady Mustangs just one win short of last season’s 11 when WNMU tallied the most wins in program history since 2002-03.
After NMHU had a couple of early leads a minute in, Stephanie Moore (Anton, TX/Anton High School) helped trigger a 7-0 run to put WNMU up six. Moore connected on a jumper and then Nalani Hernandez (Tucson, AZ/Tucson High School) collected a three-point-play and Moore closed the run with a jumper at the 16:10 mark for a 9-3 lead.
The Cowgirls would come back to tie at nine, but that would end up being the last tie of the contest. Mitchell hit a three to break the tie, to which Jade Botelho (Honolulu, HI/Iolani High School) added a three-point-play, a layup by Hernandez and then a jumper by Jordan Gutierrez(Albuquerque, NM/Valley High School) finished off a 10-0 run for the 19-9 lead with 12:31 to play in the opening half.
Mitchell extended the WNMU lead to 11 with 7:53 to go before the half with a jumper for a 25-14 advantage. The lead would get as high as 14 on a layup by Newsome before NMHU trimmed three points off the lead leaving the Lady Mustangs in front, 39-28, at halftime.
WNMU controlled points in the paint (20-10) and bench points (10-5) through the first 20 minutes.
Mitchell continued her season-high scoring effort with another jumper a few minutes into the second half that had WNMU with their largest lead of the game at 17, 48-31. WNMU would keep the lead in double-digits the remainder of the game to take the 13-point victory.
Outside of big games from both Mitchell and Newsome, Hernandez added nine points and a team-high 11 rebounds. WNMU ended up shooting 45 percent (27-60) from the field. Giulia Simioni lead NMHU with 15 points. The Lady Mustangs led on points in the paint (30-22), and rebounds (48-39).
With the win, WNMU moves into a tie for seventh in the conference standings with Fort Lewis and Regis and is just a game back of Black Hills State, MSU Denver, CSU-Pueblo and Colorado Christian all tied in third.
WNMU will remain on the road next week as they will play at UC-Colorado Springs, currently the top team in the RMAC, on Friday night beginning at 5:30 p.m. before closing the week Saturday at CSU-Pueblo.
