New Mexico
Women’s basketball advances to semifinals after win over New Mexico, 67-56
On Monday, in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West tournament, San Diego State women’s basketball team took on New Mexico and won 67-56 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
San Diego State went right to work, going on a 7-0 start led by Jada Lewis and Adryana Quezada. Just three quick minutes into the match, the Aztecs went up 13-1 over the Lobos.
New Mexico’s first field goal didn’t come until halfway through the first quarter. Headed into the first media timeout, four of five starters on SDSU had scored a basket.
“We’re just playing good basketball right now. (We’re) just locked in. I think there was a little bit of an advantage for us playing yesterday,” said head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson.
In a game of runs, New Mexico had their own 8-0 toward the end of the first frame, but a 3-pointer by Mia Davis stopped the momentum. After the first quarter, the Aztecs maintained a 5-point lead, 18-13.
A 3-pointer by Sarah Barcello put SDSU’s lead back up to 6. Through five minutes in the second quarter, San Diego State was shooting 50% on field goals and 40% from the 3-point line. The Lobos weren’t as efficient, 45% from the field and 0-of-6 on 3-point attempts.
Quezada’s floater gave her 10 points in the game, the first double-digit scorer for the Aztecs. Halftime saw a 9-point lead for SDSU, 39-28.
Barcello made her third 3-pointer of the game to start the second half, which also gave the Aztecs their largest lead at that point, up 14 points.
Guard Nyah Wilson responded for the Lobos with an and-one over Abby Prohaska, sinking the bucket at the free-throw line. This sparked a 7-0 run by New Mexico, cutting the Aztecs lead to 42-35.
Lewis joined Quezada in double-digit scoring after knocking down a step-back 3-pointer, which capped off an SDSU 7-0 run of their own, heading into the fourth quarter up 49-35.
Forward Paula Reus made the first 3-pointer of the game for New Mexico on their 11th attempt, 32 minutes into the game.
Up 51-41 with eight minutes left to play, Jazlen Green made the layup plus the foul, then hit the free throw to put SDSU’s lead back up to 13.
Prohaska was called for an offensive foul, fouling out with under six minutes left to play. Prohaska had been SDSU’s most important ball handler, especially with New Mexico using a full-court press.
Meghan Fiso hit a big 3-pointer to put the Aztecs lead back above double-digits, up 59-47 with the clock ticking. Wilson came down and hit a New Mexico 3-pointer. Lewis bit back, both teams traded shots for a few possessions, but time favored the Aztecs.
The buzzer sounded and the Aztecs, with the win 67-56, advanced to the semifinals, and will face No. 6 seeded Boise State.
Both Lewis and Quezada led in scoring, 14 points each, and Kim Villalobos put in 12 points and a career-high 14 rebounds.
“I think my teammates boxing out made it really easy for me to come in and grab the rebounds,” Villalobos said. “One of our coaches said rebounding was going to win us this game.”
Wilson had 22 points on 7-of-16 shooting for New Mexico. Their overall shooting from the 3-pointer was 3-of-17.
“We did limit the 3’s, and that was key, we did a really good job of taking that away,” Terry-Hutson said. “We knew they were hard to guard, but we had to limit those threes.”
Tip-off for today’s game is 7:30 p.m. at the Thomas & Mack Center.
“Being poised, that was our mantra,” Villalobos said. “We want to win, we packed for Wednesday, so we’re excited.”
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Some call the multi-million-dollar El Camino Real Heritage Center an architectural masterpiece. Others, however, call it one of New Mexico’s most expensive blunders. In 2021, former Speaker of the House Don Tripp weighed in on the project, “As far as benefit, it really didn’t have any benefit to anybody.”
Taxpayers paid more than $4,000,000 to build it, a few million dollars more to operate it and, now, a half million to tear it down.
The El Camino Real Heritage Center is a history museum dedicated to the historic ‘Royal Road of the Interior’. Established by Spanish conquistadores in 1598, the historic byway extended from Mexico City to north of Santa Fe. Armed with $4,000,000 from the state legislature and the Bureau of Land Management, consultants were hired to find the best place to build the new museum. After studying various locations, they chose a remote spot on the prairie 37 miles south of Socorro.
The experts said, ‘build halfway between Socorro and Truth or Consequences,’ and the museum will draw 100,000 visitors a year, bring in $10,000,000 to the region, and create 174 new jobs. Back in 2004, no one raised a red flag about putting a tourist attraction in an out-of-the-way location. It was only after construction was complete that officials learned the so-called experts were dead wrong. The project was doomed to fail before it even opened its doors. “Who the heck thought it was a good idea to build it where they built it?” State Rep. Gail Armstrong told KRQE News 13 last year.
The state’s newest museum opened in 2005. An estimated crowd of 2000 turned out for the dedication ceremony. Socorro Mayor Ravi Bhasker was there. “We had Bill Richardson out there cutting the ribbon, and then we had the Vice President of Spain come down here with his beautiful wife, and we had dignitaries everywhere. It was exciting,” Mayor Bhasker said.
But the excitement was short-lived. Where the historic El Camino Real trail was in use for three centuries, the museum with its namesake lasted just eleven years. The remote location meant few visitors, meager revenue, inadequate staffing, expensive utilities, and maintenance.
In 2016, New Mexico’s Cultural Affairs Department pulled the plug on the El Camino Real Heritage Center, padlocked the doors, and permanently closed the museum. The parking lot is deserted, tourists are gone, artifacts are packed away, display cases vacant, exhibits dismantled, interpretive panels removed, and the gift shop is bare. All there is to show for millions of tax dollars is an abandoned building on the prairie.
“Eleven years is disgraceful. There was a real failure in this particular project,” the late State Senator John Arthur Smith said in a 2021 interview. We asked the retired Senate Finance Committee Chair, when the history of this project is written, what will it say? “They’re going to shake their head and (use this as) another example of government waste,” the retired Senator Smith said in 2021.
So what do you do with a $4,000,000 deserted building in the middle of nowhere? Time and vandals have taken a toll. The museum was closed and boarded up in 2016, and then state officials abandoned the site. Because little effort was made to secure the empty building, it is no longer habitable. Copper wiring has been stolen. There is significant structural damage, mold, a rodent infestation, and no electricity or lights. Most of the HVAC, electrical, plumbing, water, and septic systems are either obsolete or inoperable.
Faced with a whopping $3.5 million repair bill, the Museum of New Mexico’s Board of Regents made the difficult decision last year to demolish the building. Board of Regent’s President, Dr. George Goldstein, calls the building, “A loss, a huge loss.”
“What a complete waste of taxpayer dollars,” says State Rep. Gail Armstrong who’s District 49 includes the museum site. And what did taxpayers get for their $4,000,000 investment? “Nothing. It just cost them a ton of money. Nothing,” Representative Armstrong said.
This week, a state-hired demolition crew began the task of tearing down the museum complex. Tons of concrete, steel, and glass will be hauled away. The parking lot and nearby caretaker’s house will also be ripped out. The prairie will be graded, reseeded with native plants, and returned to the Bureau of Land Management in restored, pristine condition. The demolition project is expected to take four months.
The El Camino Real museum was planned and built during the Governor Bill Richardson administration. All of the State Legislators involved in the funding of the museum project have since left government service.
Soon, the El Camino Real International Heritage Center will be just a bitter memory. All clues to the existence of a pricey government blunder will have been erased. Pay a visit to the remote spot south of Socorro later this fall, and all you will find will be desert creosote, prairie dogs, and a few rattlesnakes.
CLOVIS, New Mexico (KVII) — A baby giraffe was born at the Hillcrest Park Zoo in Clovis.
The city announced a male calf was born around 1 a.m. Thursday to Jerrica, a Rothschild giraffe who has lived at the zoo since she was born there in January 2012.
Zoo officials said Jerrica, a first-time mother, and her calf are doing well.
Baby giraffe born at the Hillcrest Park Zoo in Clovis, New Mexico on July 9, 2026 (Credit: Hillcrest Park Zoo )
The calf will make his public debut from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment you won’t want to miss! Bring your family, your camera, and your excitement as we welcome the zoo’s newest (and tallest!) superstar!” said the zoo.
Because the calf is male, he will eventually be moved from Hillcrest Park Zoo to another zoo or facility, according to the city.
The zoo plans to ask the public to help name the calf in the coming weeks.
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