11/9/2018 | Women’s Basketball | Box Score | Go Eastern Athletics

PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball team shook off a slow start to defeat New Mexico Highlands 66-38 in their home opening tournament, the Lone Star/Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Challenge, presented by McDonald’s and J.P. Stone Community Bank on Friday night inside Greyhound Arena.

The Greyhounds (1-0) scored on their first possession of the game on a Shelby Jones jumper, but found themselves down to NMHU (0-1) after back-to-back scores by the Cowgirls made it 5-2. Eastern managed to take back the advantage on a pair of Treyanna Clay free throws later in the quarter to make it 9-8 with 4:31 to go.

NMHU’s Jordyn Lewis gave the lead back to the Cowgirls on a three-pointer with 4:30 left and Highlands held onto the lead until Sydney Clark found Zamorye Cox and she buried the three-pointer to claim the 18-16 edge with just under a minute left in the opening period. The Cowgirls scored the equalizer just before the buzzer, sending the game into an 18-all tie going into the second quarter.

After NMHU scored the go-ahead bucket to open the second quarter, the Hounds took control by going on a 10-0 run over the next 6:22 to claim a 28-20 advantage with 3:55 left in the half. Clark, Clay, Jones, and Dasia Johnson all scored during the Hounds phenomenal run.

On Eastern’s last possession of the half, Alivia Lewis rebounded her own miss and knocked down a jumper just before the buzzer, sending the Hounds into the halftime locker room with the 30-23 edge.

The Hounds swarming defense came out fired up in the second half, limiting the Cowgirls to no points and five turnovers in the first 5:10 of the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Greyhounds scored the first seven points on a Clay layup, a Johnson three-pointer, and a Kamirah Decker layup to claim a 37-23 edge.

After the Cowgirls trimmed their deficit to 39-27, the Greyhounds finished the quarter strong as a Tilasha Okey three-pointer as well as a pair of free throws from Laura Rowe and Decker stretched the Hounds advantage to as much as 19. NMHU’s Allison Hill managed to score a layup just before the end-of-quarter buzzer, trimming Eastern’s lead to 46-29 heading into the fourth.

New Mexico Highlands scored the first three points of the fourth to make it a 14-point game at 46-32 with 8:50 left, but the Hounds grabbed control once more with a strong 11-0 run over the next 3:16, giving the Greyhounds a commanding 57-32 lead with just over five minutes to go in the game. Jones, the senior forward from Clovis, N.M. was key during the run, scoring six of ENMU’s 11 points.

The Hounds continued to control the pace throughout the rest of the game, as Eastern limited the Cowgirls to just two field goals during the entire period, including a stretch of 8:28 where the Hounds didn’t concede a single field goal.

Rowe gave ENMU its largest lead of the game at 66-36 on a three-pointer from the corner with 55 seconds remaining.

Eastern’s defense was dominant in the second half, limiting NMHU to just 5-of-27 (19-percent) from the floor, 0-of-8 from the three-point arc and forced 18 turnovers. For the entire game, the Hounds held the Cowgirls to 14-of-54 (26-percent) shooting, 4-of-18 (22-percent) from three, and forced 32 turnovers.

The 32 turnovers forced by the Hounds was the most forced in a game since the 2014-15 season when Eastern forced Texas A&M-Commerce into committing 29 on Feb. 7, 2015.

Jones led all scorers with 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field to go with six rebounds while Clay finished just one board shy of a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds to go with three steals.

Lewis ripped down the most rebounds for the Hounds, tying a career-high with 11 to go with a team-high four steals and three blocked shots. Joining Lewis for the team-lead in steals was Johnson, who dished out a team-high four assists and Clark recorded four steals as well.

The Greyhounds will look for a sweep in the LSC/RMAC Challenge tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. against Fort Lewis, who fell in the opening game of the tournament 70-68 in overtime to Western New Mexico