COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball team held its place at the No. 6 spot in the latest D2SIDA South Central Regional Poll released on Monday after picking up a pair of home wins over UT-Permian Basin and Western New Mexico last week.
The weekly poll, sponsored by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) is voted upon by six sports information directors from the South Central region, three of which from the Lone Star (LSC)/Heartland (HC) Conferences and three from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC).
In last week’s contests, the Hounds overcame a pair of slow starts to defeat UT-Permian Basin 76-57 on Thursday and Western New Mexico 59-44 on Saturday. Against the Falcons, the Hounds overcame a 9-2 first quarter deficit by holding UTPB without a field goal for an 11:55 stretch to take a 31-19 lead into the halftime break. The Greyhounds followed it up with one of their best offensive halves of the season, shooting a blistering 61 percent from the field, 50 percent from the three-point arc, and 80 percent from the free throw line to pull away with the victory.
Western New Mexico presented a similar challenge, as the Mustangs jumped out to an early 11-3 advantage before the Hounds mounted a rally. Eastern scored the final seven points of the quarter to close the gap to one and were finally able to capture the lead late in the second period as the Hounds ended the quarter on an 11-4 run to hold a 29-25 edge at the halftime break. The Hounds pushed their advantage to 12 in the third quarter before WNMU fought back to make it a five-point game in the fourth. The Greyhounds ended the game with nine unanswered points in the final three minutes to secure the win.
In this week’s poll, the Hounds picked up five more votes to finish with 28, putting them six ahead of LSC rival Tarleton State in seventh while Texas A&M-Commerce (LSC) jumped to eighth with 19 votes after each team defeated Cameron and MSU Texas last week.
Angelo State (LSC) leapt to the top spot after picking up a pair of road wins at Texas A&M-Kingsville and Texas Woman’s. The Rambelles received 55 votes and four of the six first place votes. Colorado Mesa (RMAC) fell from first to a tie for second with Westminster (RMAC) with each team getting 49 votes and one first place vote after Westminster defeated Colorado Mesa at home last week.
Lubbock Christian (HC) dropped one spot to fourth with 46 votes while West Texas A&M stayed put in the No. 5 position with 41 votes.
St. Mary’s (HC) made its return to the poll this week, coming in ninth with 13 votes while Colorado Mines (RMAC) rounded out the poll with four votes.
The Greyhounds will host their final two home games of the season this week, first hosting Texas A&M-Kingsville for their Breast Cancer Awareness game, presented by U.S. Bank at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday. The Hounds will follow it up by taking on Angelo State for Senior Day, presented by J.P. Stone Community Bank at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
