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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The host University of New Mexico Lobos opened the game on a 10-0 run and held Morehead State without a field goal for the first 10 minutes of Friday’s game at The Pit as the hosts went on for a 69-52 victory over the Eagles in the UNM Thanksgiving Classic.
Despite a rough opening 20 minutes, the Eagles responded in the final half by shooting 37 percent. MSU trailed by 15 at the break but was only outscored 33-31 in the final stanza. Freshman Natalie Greenwell hit five three-pointers, including three in the final half, to lead the Eagles with a career-high 15 points. Linda Dixon also reached double figures with 12 points, and Courtney Lumpkin totaled 11 points, six rebounds and five assists. Ashar Harris grabbed a game-best 12 rebounds for MSU.
“We dug ourselves a really big hole early, and this is a tough, tough place to play, but from there we played them straight up,” said MSU head coach Tom Hodges. “The effort was 100 percent there, I told the girls that after the game. I have to find ways for our team to put the ball in the hole. We won every battle on the stat sheet except shooting percentage. We’ll go back to the drawing board and find ways to get shots.”
MSU hit a season-high 10 three-pointers and forced 16 Lobo mistakes.
“I really felt like we executed better tonight than we have all year. We executed offensively and defensively better than we have all year tonight. We just have to find a way to get better shots and then make them fall.”
Caroline Durbin had the hot hand for the Lobos, scoring a game-high 22 points on 9-of-12 from the floor. Porche Torrance scored 13 points, while Jourdan Erskine corralled a team-high nine rebounds.
The Eagles didn’t get a successful field goal to go down until Linda Dixon made a steal at half court and laid it in at the 10:17 mark. MSU opened the game 0-for-15 from the field and trailed 19-3 before Dixon finally broke into the scoring column.
MSU was able to trim the Lobo lead down to 12 (30-18) following Lumpkin’s trey at the 3:07 mark and went to the locker room behind 36-21. New Mexico shot 57 percent in the opening half while holding the Eagles to 19 percent (6-of-32).
MSU battled to get back in the game, and eventually trimmed UNM’s advantage under double digits at 39-29. But, the Lobos proceeded to push back out by as much as 20 (58-38). In the final eight minutes, MSU was able to slash the UNM lead down to 10 again, but the Eagles could never get closer. The Lobos raced back out by as much as 19, at 69-50.
New Mexico finished with a 42-35 rebounding lead and shot 54 percent (28-of-52) for the game.
Morehead State will face University of Idaho on Saturday at 5 p.m. in the consolation game of the UNM Thanksgiving Classic.
