Upcoming Event: Women's Basketball versus Western Colorado (EXHIBITION) on October 27, 2025 at TBD
TBD
Women's Basketball
vs Western Colorado (EXHIBITION)
Saturday, February 27
Albuquerque, NM
7:00 PM
University of Utah
45
at
52
New Mexico
Women's Basketball Falls at the Pit
6/21/1999 12:00 AM | Women's Basketball
February 28, 1999
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Utah and New Mexico ended the Western Athletic Conference regular season in style Saturday night. Their showdown for the Pacific Division championship was witnessed by 16,087 fans at The Pit, and the Lobo faithful went home happy after witnessing a 52-45 New Mexico win.
The victory allowed the Lobos to share the WAC Pacific Division championship with the Utes. Both teams finished 12-2 in league play and 21-5 overall. With New Mexico winning a coin flip conducted at the WAC office earlier in the week, the Lobos were given the division's No. 1 seed in the WAC Tournament next week. Utah will be the No. 2 seed. Both teams earned a first-round bye and will open tournament play on Wednesday.
Erin Gibbons, named the WAC Pacific Division Freshman of the Year on Friday, scored a game-high 14 points. Also a second-team all-conference pick, Gibbons made 4-of-9 three-pointers in 26 minutes. Kristina Andersen had 12 points and a game-high seven boards. Lori Red equaled Andersen's seven rebounds and had four points, playing the entire 40 minutes.
Miranda Sanchez led New Mexico with 12 points. Kristi Loiselle added nine points, five rebounds and four assists.
Utah trailed 13-7 with 13:18 to play in the first half before going on a 10-2 run over the next five minutes, keyed by two three-pointers by Gibbons. Utah then built a six-point lead (29-23) after a layup by Andersen. However, the Utes went scoreless for the remaining 3:15 of the half and led 29-28 at the intermission.
The Utes, who shot 48 percent from the field and 4-for-10 from three-point range in the first half, mustered just 25 percent shooting in the second half. The Utes also scored just two points in the first 5:29 after halftime. As a result, the Lobos built a 38-31 lead with 14:21 to play in the game. The UNM lead was cut to three twice, the last time on a bucket by Gibbons with 2:46 left to make it 48-45. However, Utah failed to score the rest of the way.
"These kids really battled hard and never gave up in this game," said Ute head coach Elaine Elliott. "But, we didn't deserve to win the game because of the fact that we didn't play well enough. We made too many mistakes and we didn't get to enough loose balls. But, we battled hard.
"We still have a lot to proud of. We still won a piece of the division title with a very young team."
In addition to cold shooing in the second half, the Utes were also hurt by turnovers. Utah committed 19 while New Mexico turned the ball over just 10 times. The Utes were also outrebounded 40 to 34.
Utah opens WAC Tournament play on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m (PST) with a quarterfinal match-up against the winner of Rice/Fresno State, played on Monday.
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