Something crooked going on?

Tuesday, March 2, 2004 | 9:47 a.m.

If you listened to the New Mexico players, there was something crooked about their women's basketball game against UNLV at Cox Pavilion Thursday night.

The rim on the visitors' side of the court.

Even though the Lobos hung on for a key 59-54 win, several New Mexico players complained that the basket at which they were shooting in the second half was crooked.

Abbie Letz, one of New Mexico's top foul shooters, missed four consecutive foul shots before sinking two with 25.6 seconds to go to clinch the win.

Letz complained to referee Rick Morris that the basket was out of alignment before stepping to the line. She moved to the right after conferring with teammate Mandi Moore.

"It was so far off," Letz told the Albuquerque Journal. "Mandi told me to move farther to the right. I just kept moving over and over. By the last free throw, I was 2 feet to the right of center."

After Moore complained to Morris, the referee met with the coaches.

"I don't think that it was a big deal," UNLV's Regina Miller said. "(Our players) never said a word, and we shot 53 percent (from the field) against Air Force (Saturday night). Like the referee said, 'UNLV had to shoot at that basket in the first half.' "

At first, Miller thought the Lobos' complaint was sour grapes, but that was before she learned an employee at Cox Pavilion was working on the rim at the elevator end of the court a couple of hours before the game.

UNLV officials said the man was adjusting the red light that signals the end of the half or game when he lost his balance and grabbed the rim trying to break his fall. The worker sustained a broken foot.

So that might explain why the Lobos made only 6-of-12 from the line at that end of the court while the Lady Rebels went 6-for-11.

Or maybe it was just the pressure of a big game that threw off their shots.

"I usually put my right foot on the nail (at what normally is the middle of the free throw line)," said Moore, New Mexico's point guard. "It was way off. I said 'This is bad.' You wouldn't notice it on other shots."

But as UNLV women's basketball publicist Mark Wasik pointed out, the crooked rim didn't stop Letz from sinking a key 3-pointer with a couple of minutes to play that was even more crucial than her two free throws at the end.