Boise State Athletics
Boise State
13-4, 3-3MW
New Mexico
9-8, 5-2MW
Boise State Rally Comes Up Short
1/18/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Brooke Pahukoa's team-high 21 points was not enough to lead Boise State back from 16 points down as the Broncos lost 75-68 at New Mexico Wednesday night at Albuquerque. Boise State trailed by 16 (56-40) with 3:55 left in the third quarter before rallying in the fourth to close within three with 33 seconds left. But that was as close as the Broncos could get before falling by seven to the Lobos.
The loss drops Boise State to 13-4 overall and 3-3 in Mountain West Conference play, while New Mexico goes to 9-8 on the year and 5-2 in league.
"It is a tough place to play and New Mexico has a good team," said head coach Gordy Presnell. "I didn't think we played very well in the second quarter that put us behind at half. But we made a run at them in the second half and had our chances, we just didn't capitalize on our opportunities. We need to learn from this and improve, there is a lot of season left to play."
Boise State struggled getting its shots to fall in the first half which allowed New Mexico to slowly pulled away for a 14-point 44-30 halftime lead. The Broncos shot 30 percent from the floor in the first half compared to New Mexico's 47 percent.
It was the Brooke Pahukoa show in the first 20 minutes as she kept the Broncos in the contest by scoring over 50 percent of the team's points herself with 16 at halftime. Pahukoa finished the game with her fifth 20-plus point game recording a team-high 21 on 6-of-15 shooting from the floor with two 3-pointers and went a perfect 7-of-7 from the free-throw line.
Yaiza Rodriguez was the only other Bronco to reach double-digit points tallying 10 to go with four rebounds, four assists and one steal.
The game was close throughout the first quarter as the Lobos took a 21-19 lead into the second following a Alex Lapeyrolerie 3-pointer at the buzzer ending the quarter.
Boise State tied the game at 21 when Brooke Pahukoa hit a pair of free throws 10 seconds into the second period.
New Mexico then rolled off a 7-0 run to take control up 28-21 with 7:37 left in the quarter.
Brooke Pahukoa scored nine of the Broncos 11 points in the second quarter with the other two coming from Braydey Hodgins who hit two free throws.
Hodgins finished the game with six points, two rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal in 11 minutes.
Trailing 44-30 to open the third, Boise State rolled off a 6-0 run to cut its deficit to eight at 44-36 with 8:21 to go in the period.
Up 46-38, New Mexico responded with a 10-2 run midway through the third to take a 56-40 lead at 3:55. Boise State came back with a 10-4 run to close the quarter down 60-50.
Boise State came back in the fourth quarter pulling to within three 71-68 with 33 seconds left when Shalen Shaw nailed a left corner 3-pointer.
Unfortunately, the Broncos came up short on a couple of chances to pull even closer in the final 30 seconds as New Mexico held off the blue and orange at the free-throw line as Cherise Beynon went 4-of-4 from the charity stripe to put the game away.
Boise State finished the game shooting 31 percent (25-80) from the floor, 21 percent (6-28) from beyond the arc and a perfect 100 percent (12-12) from the free-throw line.
Two key stats were New Mexico out rebounding the Broncos 52-46 and outscored Boise State 42-22 in the paint.
The Lobos shot 41 percent (28-68) from the floor, 26 percent (5-19) from the arc and 67 percent (14-21) from the free-throw line. They had five players score double-figures led by Alex Lapeyrolerie with 18, Richelle Van Der Keijl adding 17, Cherise Beynon added a double-double on 11 points and team-high 12 rebounds.
