3/4/2020 | Women’s Basketball PORTALES, N.M. – No. 5 seed Eastern New Mexico will take on No. 4 seed Tarleton State on Thursday night inside the Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas in the quarterfinals of the Lone Star Conference Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament. 

Tip-off is set for 8:30 p.m. central standard time in a rematch of a tightly contested 54-52 Tarleton State win on Feb. 15th inside Greyhound Arena. Eastern New Mexico enters the weekend ranked no. 9 in the final South Central Regional Poll, just one spot behind Tarleton State.

FIRST ROUND VICTORY
Eastern New Mexico advanced to Frisco, Texas and the Lone Star Conference Women’s Basketball Championships quarterfinal round with a 70-52 win over Oklahoma Christian on Tuesday night inside Greyhound Arena. The Hounds matched the third most rebounds in a single game in program history with 68 boards to out-rebound the Lady Eagles 68-to-35. 
Senior Natalie DeLonge continued her outstanding late-season play with a team-high 18 points and 12 rebounds to record her third double-double in her last six games. The Klamath Falls, Ore. native has scored double-digit points in each of the last seven games for the Greyhounds. 
DeLonge teamed up with the combination of Zamorye Cox and Alivia Lewis, who each totaled 15 and 10 points respectively to overcome a slow start that saw the Hounds lead just 13-12 after the first quarter of action on Tuesday night. Eastern allowed just two points in the final 6:45 of the second quarter to pad a 28-18 halftime lead and then found their stride offensively to roll to their fourth consecutive victory and head coach Josh Prock‘s 100th victory as Eastern New Mexico head coach and first postseason victory. 

ROLLING INTO FRISCO
The Greyhounds will head into Thursday night’s game with Tarleton State on a four-game winning streak and have out-scored opponents by a + 22.3 scoring margin over the course of those contests. Defensively the Hounds have been as good as anybody in the Lone Star Conference entering Thursday night, limiting their opposition to just a 29.5 (82-of-278) field goal percentage throughout that win streak. 
This year’s squad has limited opponents to a program record 58.9 points per game and has also registered the most total rebounds in program history with 1,316 on the year. The Greyhounds ranked 15th in all of Division II women’s basketball in rebounding margin for the year (+9.5), and have out-rebounded their last four opponents by an incredible +21.0 margin. 
DeLonge has averaged 18.5 points per game in her last four games while shooting over 54.2 (32-of-59) percent from the field. Cox has taken care of the basketball at an elite level with a 2.3 assist/turnover ratio in those four games while averaging 6.3 assists per contest.  

A TRIO OF SECOND TEAMERS
DeLonge, Lewis and Cox have all been named Second Team All-Lone Star Conference performers for their efforts this season. Lewis was also named to the All-LSC Defensive team, the second year in a row Eastern New Mexico has been represented on the all-defensive team. 
Cox has been the most consistent contributor for the Greyhounds all season long, leading the squad in scoring (12.4), assists (4.7), and minutes (32.8) per game. She has gone for 15 or more points seven different occasions this year and has established herself as a premier defender in the LSC, leading the league with 74 assists. 
Lewis ranks second in the LSC with an average of 8.5 rebounds per game, the second consecutive season in which she has ranked in the top five in rebounding in the league. She has recorded seven double-doubles throughout the year, fourth most in the Lone Star Conference. 
DeLonge has averaged 12.2 points per game after transferring in from Western Oregon this summer. She has three games of 20-or-more points and has recorded at least 15 points or more in her last five games entering Thursday night. 

IN THE RECORD BOOKS
Lewis has cemented her status as one of the best post players in the history of Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball, climbing the all-time records into fourth all-time with 643 boards for her career. She ranks second all-time with 449 defensive rebounds and has averaged 7.6 rebounds per game throughout her three seasons as a Greyhound. 
Her 237 rebounds this season ranks as the sixth most in a single season in program history as well. 
Lewis and senior Jasmine Williams rank fourth and fifth all-time in single season offensive rebounds with 77 and 75 on the year. Cox ranks sixth all-time in single season assists with 135 and her 74 assists are the second most in a single season in program history.

A MATCH-UP BEYOND THE TOURNAMENT
Thursday night’s games against Tarleton State could have much larger implications than just to advance in the LSC Basketball Championship Tournament as Tarleton ranks one spot ahead of Eastern New Mexico in the latest South Central Region Poll. With the two teams ranking in eighth and ninth place in the poll and just eight team advancing to the NCAA Division II National Tournament, Thursday’s game could very easily be the deciding factor as to which team will advance to the regional tournament as the eighth and final seed. 
The Hounds fell at home by a final score of 54-52 to the Texans in the regular season meeting between the two teams. That game was the only game all season in which the Hounds lost after leading at the halftime break as Tarleton State rattled off 24 points in the fourth quarter and led for the first time in the second half with eight seconds remaining in the contest. 

A GOOD SITE, A GOOD DAY AND A GOOD TIME
The Hounds are now 4-0 in neutral site games this season and are 10-1 in Thursday night games this season. A win on Thursday night against the Texans would move the Hounds just one game away from tying the program record for wins in a single season at 23, a record set by the 1992-93 team that was the last Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball team to advance to the LSC Championship Semifinal Round.

HOW TO WATCH
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. will broadcast all games at the Lone Star Conference Basketball Championships throughout the weekend. Links for those contests can be found at LoneStarConferenceNetwork.com.