After last Saturday’s triple overtime disappointment against Colorado State, the U women’s basketball team attempts to get back on track, starting tonight, with its first MWC road trip of the year.
Tonight, the Utes (8-6 overall, 1-1 MWC) are in Colorado Springs, Colo., facing Air Force, and on Saturday they’ll be in Albuquerque, N.M., battling New Mexico.
“Well, there will be no rest for the weary, as we continue conference play,” U coach Elaine Elliott said. “We are back on the road and we’ll be right back at it with two more tough conference games. Our challenge is finding that comfort zone. We have to keep perfecting things and keep improving in order to be successful.”
Perfection likely won’t be necessary, though, against the undersized, undertalented Falcons, who come in at 4-10 overall, 0-1 MWC.
They started the year off by losing their first seven, and nine of their first 11 games. A two-game win streak, garnered against fellow service academies Army and Navy, was quickly snapped with a 64-43 home loss to New Mexico on Jan. 12.
Historically, AFA has been even less successful versus the Utes, dropping each of the eight contests it has played against Utah.
Despite the U’s own struggles this year, the trend of this so called rivalry doesn’t figure to change tonight.
Sophomore forward Amoy Jackson has been perhaps the lone bright spot for the Falcons, averaging 11.4 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. Even her relatively good play comes with a caveat, though, as she is shooting just 39.3 percent from the field.
No other Falcon comes close to double-digit scoring, and the lack of consistent production from the rest of the roster is telling. Air Force has started 11 different players this year, and played 14 different players in each of the last three games.
As a result, Air Force is last in the MWC in shooting and scoring, and sixth in both field goal defense and scoring defense, so the team gets outscored by an average of 7.8 points per contest.
However, when the Utes play at New Mexico on Saturday, they’ll find themselves matched against a slightly different opponent.
The Lobos (12-4, 1-1) are sporadically dominant, but almost always solid, despite a schedule suggesting a propensity for beating up on bottom-feeders and struggling against quality opponents.
UNM’s four losses (to No. 12 ranked Colorado, Oregon State, Texas and MWC leader UNLV) have been by an average of 13.3 points per game.
However, the Lobos also have massive potential, as demonstrated by a 74-65 defeat of then No. 9-ranked Texas Tech back on Nov. 30.
New Mexico is powered by one of the conference’s biggest forces, 6-foot-3-inch junior center Jordan Adams, who is first in the MWC in blocks (3.94), fourth in scoring (17.1), sixth in rebounding (6.5), and 11th in shooting (.486).
Unlike the Falcons, though, the Lobos’ star player is surrounded by capable contributors. Freshman forward Mandi Moore is adding 10.0 ppg (tops among conference freshmen) and 4.2 rpg, while junior forward Chelsea Grear puts in 9.9 points and 6.5 boards per game.
However, the Lobos don’t have much of a history of success against the Utes either, having compiled an all time mark of 9-36 against them. Even at the vaunted Pit, the Lobos are just 9-12 versus the U.