“That's the Deeva Vaughn I remember and
hopefully that's the
Deeva Vaughn you are going to see the whole year,” said UNM head
coach Yvonne
Sanchez.
The Lobos overcame a first half deficit to take
the halftime
lead then held off a late charge by Texas Tech to earn the win.
"We just all came together – we didn't crumble
or
anything,” said Vaughn. “We kept coming through. I feel we did a
really good
job executing offensively and defensively.”
Freshman point guard Bryce Owens also scored 15 points while,
seniors Caroline Durbin
and Sarah Halasz added 11 points and 10 respectively.
UNM shot 42.1 percent to 38.5 percent for Tech.
The Lobos also
held the advantage in rebounding 42 to 33. The Red Raiders did
better on
turnovers than the Lobos, to the tune of 18 to UNM’s 22. But Tech
had only
managed two fast-break points for the game.
New Mexico (2-0) played hesitantly in the first
five
minutes, but eventually adjusted to Red Raiders’ pressure
“That was a lot of fun. It was just a total
team
effort," said Sanchez "Texas Tech is a good team. We had 22
turnovers
but on the bright side, we had 30 last year (at Tech)."
UNM came from behind in the first half to go up
33-30 at the
half and went up by as many as nine points in the second half, but
the closest
Tech could come was a 42-42 tie with 14:53 to play.
The Lobos led 55-48 with 6:09 to play and Tech
closed to
59-56 with 1:07 to play. But
Owens sank a 3-pointer on an in-bounds play
with 28 seconds
left that put UNM up 62-56 and put tech away for good.
"That was the game," said Sanchez. "Bryce
played fearless. She has such a fire in her belly. When it was
time to take
over the game, she did."
Owens seemed overwhelmed by the experince after
the game.
"I can't even describe the feeling," said
Owens.
"I don't believe I've ever hit a more intense shot in my life.
That was
not the plan. I just happened to be wide open."
Tech was paced by Monique Smalls, who scored a
game-high 22
points. Albuquerque product Amber Battle added 12 points and
Christine Hyde
added 10 points for the Red Raiders, who fall to 1-1 on the year.