Utah’s tough stretch of games continues Sunday as the women’s basketball team travels to “The Pit” to take on the New Mexico Lobos in Albuquerque, N.M.
The team that emerges victorious will take first place in the Mountain West Conference. Utah stands at 13-6 and, more importantly, 6-0 in conference play. New Mexico is right behind Utah at 16-3 overall, with a record of 5-1 in the MWC.
“You understand after doing this for 25 years how the formula works,” said head coach Elaine Elliot. “When you get road breakthroughs against teams that will compete for that championship, those are really huge. So this game (BYU) was really big for us. But we still got to go out and play the next one.”
Wednesday night’s game against BYU was arguably Utah’s most important game at that point in the season. The Utes have an incredibly difficult stretch of games coming up to New Mexico and TCU, and Utah needed to do everything it could to stretch its lead out as much as possible.
Now comes another extremely important in-conference showdown8212;New Mexico.
The timing of this game poses a few hurdles for the Utes. Utah spent a lot of energy at the Marriott Center in Provo securing a win against the Cougars. The Utes are going to have to come up with just as much fuel if they want to best the Lobos. The Utes can’t afford to suffer a hangover from the huge win against the rivals.
Senior guard Morgan Warburton thinks the experience gained from the BYU game will be beneficial for the Utes as they begin to prepare for New Mexico.
“It’s like what coach said to us in the locker room during the BYU game, “The last five games we were able to do what we wanted,'” Warburton said. “And the BYU game was one we were going to have to go out and be ready to play for. It’s going to be the exact same way at “The Pit.’ I think it was really good for us to have that type of game against BYU because we know it’s going to be tough to play down there.”
Sunday afternoon’s game should be a defensive struggle for both teams. New Mexico and Utah are on top of the league in defensive field goal percentage and scoring margin. The two also hold their opponents consistently below the 60-point mark. Finally, both teams sit at the top in rebounding margin. It’s going to be strength going up against strength.
As for matchups, expect Ute freshmen guards Hannah Stephens and Janita Badon to have their hands full as they take on one of the conference’s more talented point guards, New Mexico’s Amy Beggin. She leads the team in points scored at 15.7 points per game. She is also an above-average shooter from outside, hitting 38 percent of her 3-point attempts. Despite being only 5-foot-6-inches, she is an efficient rebounder, pulling in 6.2 a game.
The other player who will require special attention is post player Angela Hartill. At 6-foot-3, she can be a presence down low for the Lobos. She is second on the team in points, scoring 11.7, and is a strong offensive rebounder.
New Mexico matches up well in almost every major statistical category against the Utes. Couple that with the home court advantage they get at “The Pit,” and this has the makings of one of Utah’s toughest games of the season.
Sean SullivanUtah head coach Elaine Elliot will take her team to ?The Pit? on Saturday to face New Mexico. The winner will take control of first place in the MWC.