The Lobos (5-3) return to action at WisePies Arena AKA The PIT to face Pepperdine University Waves (4-6). Because they had the week off for Finals Week, the Lobos haven’t played since their two-game Texas road trip. The Lobos are coming off a great road win against a solid SMU team while the Waves, after starting the year 2-6, are on a two-game winning streak. Look for the Lobos to make Pepperdine work hard on both sides of the court to take advantage of the elevation. It is important for the Lobos that Khadijah Shumpert stays out of foul trouble, especially after seeing her pick up her 4^th foul in the first minute of the third quarter in the last game. While the Lobos can find production from other post players, it is always a benefit to have your best player on the court for a large majority of the game.

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As they finish the fall semester and get ready for their three games during their holiday schedule, the Lady Lobos find themselves sitting at 5-3. This will be their last stretch to get ready for conference play, which starts December 30^th. While it is most likely the Mountain West Conference is once again a one-bid league, the Lobos have positioned themselves as one of the favorites to win the regular season championship, or at least end up with a high seed for the conference tournament. That said, I think that it is imperative for the Lobos to win their last three non-conference game, as I think that it would make it possible for them to become an at-large team if they ended up with two or less loses in conference play and end up with a loss in the conference championship game. I don’t think the Lobos want to put their NCAA Tournament chances in the hand of the selection committee, so the goal is clearly to win the MWC Tournament to get the automatic bid. But, before all that, let’s look back at the first eight games of the schedule and some scattered thoughts that I have had during the first month of the season.

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The Lobos continue their Texas two-step road trip with their game Saturday afternoon at SMU in Dallas, Texas. The Lobos are coming off a tough road loss at UTEP, where the Miners shot 12-24 from three-point range in the game. That put the Lobos on a two game losing streak, which they hope to break against the 3-3 Mustangs. I bet Coach Sanchez and the coaching staff talked and preached to their team to limit the quality looks that they gave from three, as that has become a bit of an issue this season. A bright spot for the Lobos is that the Mustangs have struggled from three in the early part of this season, shooting below 30% at 29.5%. Still, the Lobos will have to defend well in this game to have a good shot of winning and they have to make sure not to foul, as the Mustangs are a great free throw shooting team at 84%.

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The Lobos start a two-game road trip to the state of Texas today against longtime rival UTEP in El Paso. The Lobos are looking to rebound after a tough loss against Duquesne in the championship game of the Thanksgiving Tournament, losing 78-69. It doesn’t get any easier for the Lobos (4-2) though, as they face the undefeated Miners (5-0) Wednesday afternoon at 4:15. While the Miners haven’t played a great schedule so far this season, they haven’t even played a road game yet, they are undefeated and playing at home against a young Lobos team that has only played one road game this season, which they lost by 19 to NMSU. Already in this young season, both teams have played Houston Baptist at home, with the Lobos winning their game 65-57 and the Miners winning their game 98-63. While we can’t take too much out of those results, one thing we can take out is the Miners ability to score the basketball; they are averaging 77.6 points per game. For the Lobos to have a good shot to win this game they need to take care of the ball, take good shots, and force the Miners into bad shots.

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The Lobos and Duquesne took care of business in the first round of the New Mexico Thanksgiving Tournament to set up a Championship game with two 4-1 teams. Duquesne beat North Carolina A&T 81-67, where they played very well in the second half, outscoring North Carolina A&T 47-30. The Lobos had a much easier time against Southern Utah, winning the game 70-48 and outscoring Southern Utah in each of the first three quarters. As I mentioned before the Southern Utah game, being able to rest your best players in the first game would be very important for the game Saturday and the Lobos did a great job doing that, with only Cherise Beynon (25) and Bryce Owens (28) playing over 20 minutes. On the other hand, Duquesne had three players play over 30 minutes and six players that played over 20 minutes.

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After a dominating performance Tuesday in their 83-43 win against Nicholls State, the Lobos return to action for their Thanksgiving Tournament. First up for the Lobos is Southern Utah, who they will play this afternoon. Today’s other game in the four team tournament is Duquesne vs. North Carolina A&T. New Mexico and Duquesne are both heavy favorites in their opening game and should square off on Saturday for the Championship Game. But, first things first; both teams need to win today.

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The Lobos return to The Pit today, where they haven’t lost since the name change to WisePies Arena last year. After Tuesday’s 78-59 road loss to instate rival NMSU, the Lobos are hoping to bounce back and fix what went wrong down south. The Saturday afternoon game against Sacramento State (1-1) is an interesting matchup since both teams are coming off of loses to NMSU, with Sacramento State losing their game 80-77. While Sacramento State’s score was closer against NMSU, it doesn’t really give an idea of how this game will play out. Look for the Lobos to come out and show that their game on Tuesday is not the team they are and more of a fluke. I expect that we will see some changes in the rotation after Tuesday’s game, but nothing dramatic. It should be a good game on a day filled with Lobo sporting events.

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