CANYON, Texas – The Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball team closed the West Texas A&M Thanksgiving Classic with its best shooting performance of the season as the Hounds defeated New Mexico Highlands 89-54 on Saturday afternoon.
The Hounds (4-1) pulled away early in the contest as freshman guard Zamorye Cox opened the game with back-to-back three point shots before the Cowgirls (2-5) scored their first bucket 1:47 into the game.
Over the next 3:28, Eastern surged away with a 13-2 run that featured five different scorers to give ENMU the 19-4 advantage. NMHU started to fight back with back-to-back three-pointers to cut the Hounds lead to 19-10 with 3:31 to go, but the Hounds streaked away by scoring eight unanswered to hold a 29-12 edge going into the second period.
After the Cowgirls trimmed the ENMU lead to 31-15 with 8:54 to go in the second, the Hounds caught fire from three-point range, burying three straight three-pointers, two of which coming from senior guard Dasia Johnson that was part of a 17-4 run to make it a 48-19 Eastern advantage with 3:08 left in the first half.
Eastern closed out the half by scoring six of the last eight points, ending the half on a Chelsea Hunter layup with seven seconds to go, making it a 55-22 lead going into the break.
The Hounds shot a blistering 66-percent from the floor in the first half, going 23-of-35 while also converting on 8-of-12 (67-percent) of their three-point attempts. The ENMU defense limited the Cowgirls to just 26-percent shooting from the floor and 29-percent from the three-point arc in the half.
The Greyhounds stretched their advantage to as much as 38 in the third quarter when Alivia Lewis knocked down a pair of free throws with 2:21 left to make it a 64-26 game. Eastern went on to take a 69-32 lead into the fourth quarter when Jerraysha Smith made a putback off an offensive rebound at the buzzer.
The Hounds took their largest lead of the game with 4:17 to go in the fourth quarter when Kamirah Decker made a jumper in the paint to stretch the advantage to 41 at 83-42.
Eastern outshot New Mexico Highlands by a 53-to-30 percent margin and a 48-to-28 percent difference from the three-point arc. The Hounds also won the rebounding margin 42-to-32 while finishing with a season-high 28 assists.
Sophomore guard Jena Mehlbrech led four Greyhounds in double-figures, scoring a career-high 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and converting on 3-of-4 from three-point range. In her first year with the Hounds, Decker also finished with a career-high 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field. Okey turned in her top performance as a member of the Greyhounds, turning in 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting, including going 4-for-8 from the three-point arc to go with a season-high four assists.
Johnson rounded out the double-figure scoring with a season-high 11 points on 4-of-8 from the field and 3-for-3 from the three-point line and tying her second-highest assist total of her four-year ENMU career with six. Cox turned in her best game with the Hounds, scoring a career-high eight points to go with the team’s season-best assist mark with seven.
After recording her career-high 12 rebounds in the Hounds 58-54 win over CSU-Pueblo yesterday, Lewis once again topped her career-best with 13 against the Cowgirls, 12 of which were of the defensive variety while coming just two points shy of a double-double with eight points.
By getting the 89-54 win, it was the most points the Hounds have scored since picking up a 90-76 win over Texas A&M-Commerce back on Jan. 22, 2014. The Hounds moved to 4-0 in NCAA Division II play with all four wins coming against Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opponents. It was the second victory the Hounds picked up over New Mexico Highlands this season after defeating the Cowgirls 66-38 in the season-opener on Nov. 9.
The Greyhounds will now prepare to open Lone Star Conference play on Thursday, Nov. 29 as the Hounds host Midwestern State at 5:30 p.m. before taking on Cameron at 1 p.m. on Dec. 1 inside Greyhound Arena.
