11/6/2018 | Women’s Basketball | Go Eastern Athletics
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball team gave a strong challenge to Colorado State in its 72-46 loss to the Rams in its exhibition finale on Tuesday night.
After CSU jumped out to an early 11-0 lead with 6:11 to go in the first quarter, senior guard Dasia Johnson started an 11-3 run with a three-pointer and then found Zamorye Cox for a three-pointer to cut the deficit to 11-6. A CSU three-pointer stretched the Rams lead back to eight, but a pair of Alivia Lewis free throws and a Laura Rowe three-point shot at the 2:43 mark in the first quarter narrowed the gap to 14-11.
Back-to-back buckets by Colorado State extended the Rams lead back to seven, but Tilasha Okey’s layup just before the buzzer made it an 18-13 game heading into the second quarter. CSU once again extended its lead to seven early in the second period, but a 5-0 run off a Shelby Jones layup, a Treyanna Clay free throw and another Johnson bucket made it a 20-18 game with 5:46 to go until the half.
A few minutes later, Okey’s three-pointer cut the deficit to one and with 3:17 left in the quarter, Sydney Clark’s layup gave the Hounds their first lead at 23-22. Back-to-back scores by the Rams once again gave them the 26-23 lead, but Eastern closed out the final minute on a high note. ENMU narrowed the gap to one on a Rowe jumper with 47 seconds remaining and Cox gave Eastern the lead back on a layup with 20 seconds left to claim a 27-26 advantage heading into the halftime break.
However, the Hounds could not keep the Rams scoring attack down in the second half as Colorado State started pulling away late in the third quarter. The Hounds could not shake a cold shooting start to open the third quarter and Colorado State took advantage, grabbing a 46-32 edge at the end of the third quarter.
Eastern managed to get a little more offense going in the fourth quarter, but the Hounds still could not contain a red-hot Rams squad that shot 68 percent from the floor in the quarter to pull away with the win.
The Hounds struggled to shoot against the Rams defense, going 15-of-66 (23-percent) from the floor and 5-of-38 (13-percent) from the three-point arc, while the Rams shot 28-of-61 (46-percent) and 7-of-22 (32-percent) from three.
One positive the Greyhounds did take away from this game was their ability to get to the free throw line as ENMU out-shot Colorado State by a 21-10 margin in free throw attempts, but only converted 11 shots (52-percent) while the Rams made nine (90-percent) of their attempts.
Clay led all ENMU players with 11 points, converting on 2-of-4 from the floor and on 7-of-11 of her free throw attempts. Rowe added eight points off the bench for the Hounds while Okey chipped in six points and recorded five rebounds.
Jones led the rebounding efforts for the Greyhounds, finishing with nine boards, five of which were of the offensive variety while Alivia Lewis ripped down seven rebounds and added two blocked shots off the bench. Johnson pitched in a team-leading three assists to go with her five points.
With exhibition play now behind them, the Hounds will turn their attention to this weekend as Eastern will open the regular season with its host event, the Lone Star/Rocky Mountain Conference Challenge on Friday and Saturday at Greyhound Arena. The Greyhounds will open regular season play against New Mexico Highlands at 6:30 p.m. on Friday before taking on Fort Lewis at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
