The Lady Frogs made two shots in the first half, shooting 9.1 percent, and shot 27.3 percent for the game as TCU dropped its first conference game of the season 65-54 against New Mexico to snap an eight-game winning streak.

“This is maybe the first [game] that I’ve been thoroughly disgusted with our effort as a team approach,” head basketball coach Jeff Mittie said. “I thought our entire group was very individual tonight.”

Senior guard Emily Carter and senior guard/forward Helena Sverrisdottir both added nine points, but shot 5-for-20 combined.

“[Sverrisdottir has] gotta get herself going, [Carter has] gotta get herself going,” Mittie said. “There’s plenty of stuff there for both of them to get going, we have plenty of plays for them.”

It was the first conference win for New Mexico (7-11, 1-5 MWC) as well as its first win in 2011. TCU (14-7, 6-1 MWC) had not lost a game in Daniel-Meyer Coliseum since Dec. 22 and was previously undefeated in 2011.

Sophomore forward Starr Crawford fouled out of the game with 4:00 left in the game. She still led TCU with 16 points, going 8-for-11 on the free-throw line.

New Mexico’s victory snapped a five-game losing streak for the Lady Lobos, who had lost nine of 10 before Wednesday’s game.

New Mexico freshman guard Jasmine Patterson and sophomore guard Caroline Durbin both had 14 points, while senior guard/forward Amanda Best tied Crawford for a game-high 16 points.

New Mexico freshman forward Morgan Toben had a game-high 13 rebounds.

“I just told [the team] it wasn’t sustainable to continue to take shots we’re taking, to be able to be outrebounded,” Mittie said. “They needed to figure out if they were going to do something about this and correct it, or these types of games were gonna continue. We shot nine percent [in the first half]. It’s gotta be a record, doesn’t it?”

The Lady Frogs didn’t make a field goal until sophomore forward Delisa Gross sank a three-pointer to tie the game 9-9 with 12:06 remaining in the first half. The Lady Lobos’ first half lead never reached more than eight points, mainly because TCU managed to reach the foul line, going 14-16 on free throws in the first half. New Mexico made a single free throw in the first half, keeping the Lady Frogs within six points, 25-19 at the end of the half.

TCU started the second half flat, as the Lady Lobos built a 13-point lead in less than three minutes on a 3-pointer by Durbin.

The Lady Frogs cut the lead to 47-41 on a Carter 3-pointer with 11:23 to play, but New Mexico went on an 8-0 run to pad the lead back to 14 points. The Lady Frogs would not get the lead down to single digits for the rest of the night.

“New Mexico took it to us all night, and we seemed to want it to be real easy, and not be willing to do all the little things, and not be willing to play together,” Mittie said. “We’re not that good.”

Notes

New Mexico outrebounded TCU 46-39, scored six more points off turnovers, six more points in the paint and scored four more fast break points.

TCU’s 9.1 percent first half field goal percentage was a record-low for the Lady Frogs.

Wednesday’s game snapped a five-game losing streak for New Mexico while ending TCU’s eight-game winning streak. It was also the Lady Lobos’ first conference win of the season and TCU’s first loss of 2011.

Up next: The Lady Frogs will travel to Colorado Springs, Colo., to face Air Force at 3 p.m. Saturday.