The Lobos (8-4, 1-0) return to action at home Saturday afternoon to take on the Fresno State Bulldogs (5-7, 1-0). Both teams are coming off conference-opening wins and are looking to improve to 2-0 in conference play. The Lobos look to play a better game than they played against Nevada and need Jaisa Nunn to make a return to action ASAP. If the Lobos get a great game from senior forward Khadijah Shumpert, I really like the Lobos chances to win this game.
One thing that I will be keeping an eye on is how the Lobos are going to take care of the ball. They struggled against Nevada, having over 20 turnovers, but the Lobos did have a great game from point guard Laneah Bryan, who had only one turnover. If the Lobos can keep their turnovers to under 15, it will give the Lobos an even greater chance to win the game.
Fresno State Bulldogs
The Bulldogs are led by second year Head Coach Jamie White and are coming off a strong season where they finished 23-10 and 13-5 in MW play. For their play, the Bulldogs received a berth to the WNIT. While the Bulldogs haven’t gotten off to the start that they wanted to this season, this will still be a dangerous team to face. The Bulldogs have a very balanced scoring attack with three players in double figures and seven players averaging over 5 points per game.
The Bulldogs are led by sophomore forward Bego Faz Davalos, who is averaging 12.9 points, 10.2 rebounds, 2.7 assists, over a steal a game, and 3.6 blocks per game. The Lobos will need to make sure that she doesn’t have a huge game where she dominates the Lobos and leads the Bulldogs to a huge road win. The Bulldogs have other players that the Lobos will have to stop, but the Bulldogs star is one of the best players the Lobos will face this season.
Team Stat Comparison
- Points Per Game: Lobos 65.4; Bulldogs 67.2
- Points Allowed Per Game: Lobos 58.9; Bulldogs 64.7
- Field Goal Percentage: Lobos 40.2%; Bulldogs 38.9%
- Three Point Percentage: Lobos 29.7%; Bulldogs 28.4%
- Free Throw Percentage: Lobos 63.4%; Bulldogs 70.4%
- Defensive Field Goal Percentage: Lobos 35.0%; Bulldogs 39%
- Defensive Three Point Percentage: Lobos 28.8%; Bulldogs 30.7%
- Rebounds Per Game: Lobos 41.3; Bulldogs 39.4
- Assists Per Game: Lobos 14.8; Bulldogs 14.8
- Turnovers Per Game: Lobos 16.8; Bulldogs 15.2
- Turnovers Forced Per Game: Lobos 17.3; Bulldogs 16.8
The teams match up evenly across the board, which should indicate what sort of game this should be. One stat that I find interesting is that the Lobos are averaging 16.8 turnovers, and the Bulldogs are forcing 16.8 turnovers per game. Hopefully the free throw line doesn’t play a huge role in the game, as the Lobos are just an ok shooting team from there, but the Bulldogs are a very good free throw shooting team.
Matchup to Watch
The Match up to watch in this game is the match up in the frontcourt between Khadijah Shumpert and Bego Faz Davalos. The winner of the match up will go a long way towards determining which team will win the game. I bet the Lobos don’t have Shumpert guarding Bego Faz Davalos, due to her being known to get into foul trouble and how important it is for her to stay on the court. The Lobos need Shumpert to have the sort of big game that we all have seen her have against great players. I believe that we will see a great Shumpert game which will result in a Lobos win.
Prediction
This game should be a great battle, between two teams that were near the top of the conference standings last year. I do believe that the Lobos are the better team and are playing at home so I will put the odds of the Lobos winning this game at 63%. I think this will be a back and forth game with many lead changes, but with the Lobos pulling away in the fourth quarter to win 71-64. Hopefully this will be the first part of a Lobo sweep of the Bulldogs today.
Game Info
Who: New Mexico 8-4, 1-0 vs. Fresno State 5-7, 1-0
Where: WisePies Arena AKA The PIT, Albuquerque NM
When: Saturday January 2, 2 PM MT
Radio: 610 AM
Stream: Campus Insiders