EL PASO, Texas – The Western New Mexico University Women's Basketball team kicked off their 2022-23 Season with an exhibition match up against Division One UTEP. The Miners took down the Mustangs 75-58.
Two Mustangs would manage double figures on the Miners. Newcomer,
Silvia Blanco (Madrid, Spain/IES Gerardo Diego) led the charge for the Mustangs with 13 points on 5-9 (55%) from the field and 3-6 (50%) from deep.
Sydney Wright (Houston, Texas/Henley High School) added 12 points as well on 4-9 (44%) and 1-1 (100%) from three-point land.
Turnovers and defending the paint would be the Mustangs downfall tonight. The Mustangs would commit 24 turnovers of the night, compared to only 12 from the Miners. UTEP also managed to outscore the Mustangs 28-18 in the paint.
The Miners had fast hands tonight, as they forced nine steals on the Mustangs.
WNMU shot 22-57 (38.6%) overall and 7-17 (41.2%) from behind the arc. The Miners mustered a 29-61 (47.5%) from the field and 5-13 (38.5%) from three.
At the charity stripe both teams struggled, as the Mustangs shot 7-13 (53.8%) and the Miners managed 12-21 (57.1%).
On the boards,
Diamond Moore (Colorado Springs, CO/Harrison High School) snagged nine rebounds.
Delaney Cook (Peoria, IL/Peoria Notre Dame High School) would contribute seven rebounds.
Milan Tuttle (Oakland, California/Heritage High School) would record three assists on the night.
In the defensive department, Cook,
Joslyn Montez (Las Cruces, NM/Centennial High School),
Brooke Rodgers (Phoenix, Arizona/Cactus Shadows High School) and
Jade Goynes (Fort Worth, TX/North Crowley High School) each had a steal.
Eliza Joynes (Adelaide, South Australia/Henley Sports Academy) spotted two bocks on the night.
In the first quarter WNMU found themselves quickly trailing 9-1 thanks to a balanced Miners scoring attack. After a quick timeout by Coach
Josh Pace, the Mustangs slowly chipped away at the lead, trailing 16-12 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter the Mustangs went down by as many as 13 before hitting their first points of the quarter thanks to a jumper by Moore. Blanco drilled a three from the left wing as the buzzer sounded for halftime, to trim the lead back to single digits. 29-21.
Quarter number three is where the Miners gained their biggest lead of the game, 23-points. After trading baskets early in the quarter, the Miners went on an 18-3 run with nine of those points coming from Mahri Petree. The third quarter ended 51-33 in favor of the Miners.
For the fourth quarter was the Mustangs gave one last effort, cutting the lead to 14 with 4:28 on the clock, thanks to the efforts of Tuttle and Rodgers. It would be little to late as the Miners successfully held off the Mustangs for a 75-58.
Four Miners managed double digits. Petree lead all scorers with 16 points on 7-13 (53.8%) shooting splits. Erin Wilson added 14 points on 5-7 (71.4%) from the field. Lusia Vydrova scored 13 points and Adhel Tac contributed 10 points. Adhel and Delma Zita dished out three assists each. Adhel lead the team with seven boards. Zita stripped the Mustangs for four steals and Wilson had three.
Top Mustangs:
Silvia Blanco (Madrid, Spain/IES Gerardo Diego): 13 pts, (5-9 FG), (3-6 3FG)
Sydney Wright (Houston, Texas/Henley High School): 10 pts, (4-9 FG). (1-1 3FG)
Diamond Moore (Colorado Springs, CO/Harrison High School): 8 pts, 9 reb
The Mustangs will hit the road for the Conference Crossover hosted by Eastern New Mexico with a matchup against New Mexico Highlands on Nov. 10
th (12:00PM MT).
