SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Freshman forward Tabytha Wampler led the New Mexico State women’s basketball team with 12 points in the programs 1,000th all-time game, but Illinois-Chicago shot 50.7 percent as they defeated the Aggies, 83-63, Tuesday night in the Jenny Craig Pavilion at the University of San Diego.
For the Aggies (4-9), who have now lost their last five games, they shot just 29.4 percent in the game. NMSU did do a lot of good things in the loss to UIC (6-4). The Aggies committed a season-low nine turnovers, had 10 steals and had 23 second chance points off a season-high 21 offensive rebounds.
In the game, sophomore guard Madison Spence became the sixth faster player in program history to reach 500 career points. She scored six points that all came at the free-throw line in the first half.
Wampler scored her 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting and she was the only Aggie to score in double-figures, but all 10 New Mexico State players that played scored Tuesday. Senior guard Tyshae Walton added eight points as did freshman guard Kaitlyn Soto. Freshman Kelsie Rozendaal and senior center Niki Holt both had seven rebounds.
Despite the loss, head coach Darin Spence came away from the game encouraged by how hard his team played and the fact that they never gave up.
“We are still trying to figure some things out, but we have to remain patient as we continue to grow and we’ll bounce back,” Spence said. “Illinois-Chicago is a good team and they fought us off tonight every time we made a little run.
“I though Tabytha (Wampler) and Niki (Holt) played well for us tonight and Brittany Palmer had a couple of good games out here.”
The Flames were led by Jessie Millers 19 points and Nikki Grobbecker’s 16. UIC had 23 assists in the game on its 34 made field goals.
Right off the opening tip UIC drove right down and looked like they had an easy layup before Corbett came in flying to block Cassie Johnson’s shot. Corbett then got an easy layup cutting down the lane on the ensuing possession and after a three-point play from Brittany Palmer the Aggies held a 5-2 lead one minute in.
The Flames countered the early rush with 17-1 run that featured two 3-pointers against the NMSU zone defense to give them a 19-6 lead six minutes into the game. Illinois-Chicago proceeded to go up by as many as 15 before 3-pointers on consecutive possessions from Corbett and Wampler cut that down to 11.
In the first 10 minutes of the game UIC had made 12 of its first 18 shots compared to NMSU’s 5-of-21 shooting. However, Walton’s first 3-pointer of the season brought the Aggies back within 10 for the first time since it was 14-5.
Walton hit her second three of the game at 6:23 that Spence followed with a pair of free throws, putting her over 500 points in her career and cutting the Flames’ lead down to 35-28. The Flames closed out the half strong and outscored NMSU 10-4 before the halftime buzzer to give them a 45-32 lead.
In the first two minutes of the second half UIC had upped its lead up to 18. With the lead still at 18 after seven minutes the Aggies got three straight layups, two from Wampler and one from sophomore Erica Sanchez, that forced UIC to call a timeout.
Four Aggie free throws brought them within 12, 63-51, at 9:04. But Miller’s third 3-pointer was a dagger and Grobbecer added a layup on the next possession to put its lead back up to 17.
The Aggies started the half shooting 7-of-15 from the floor, but went cold after that and made just two of their next 10 shots allowing UIC to go up by as many as 22 and they handed the New Mexico State its fifth-straight loss.
Walton had three of NMSU’s 10 steals n the game and Corbett finished with both of NMSU’s blocked shots.
The Aggies are now off until Jan. 4 when they travel out to Lawrence, Kan., to face the Kansas Jayhawks at 1:00 p.m.
Courtesy: Tim Barnett-Queen
