COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball team held serve in the No. 6 position in the latest D2SIDA South Central Regional Poll released on Monday.
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).
The Hounds maintained its No. 6 spot in the poll after splitting a pair of tough matches last week. Eastern dropped its first home game of the season with a 72-61 loss to nationally 14th-ranked and the No. 3 team in the region West Texas A&M on Tuesday. The Hounds rallied from a 16-point second half deficit, trimming the deficit to five with 3:29 on a Jena Mehlbrech jumper. However, the Lady Buffs were able to put the game away with efficient shooting from the foul line in the final two minutes.
The Greyhounds were able to bounce back on Thursday with a dramatic 79-78 overtime win over Texas Woman’s. Trailing by three with 26 seconds left, freshman guard Zamorye Cox nailed a 30-foot three-pointer from left wing to tie the match up at 68, sending the game into overtime. With the Hounds down one and the clock running down, Mehlbrech was able to draw a foul with 0.2 seconds left and was able to bury both free throws to seal the victory.
Eastern received 27 votes, finishing five votes higher than LSC rival Tarleton State in the No. 7 spot and 11 votes better than Texas A&M-Commerce (LSC) in eighth.
Colorado Mesa (RMAC) maintained its spot at the top for the second consecutive week after getting a couple of big home wins over Dixie State and regionally-ranked Westminster. CMU received 57 votes and five of the six first place votes. Angelo State (LSC) finished right behind in the voting with 51 votes, along with the other first place vote and West Texas A&M (LSC) held its No. 3 spot with 48 votes. Lubbock Christian (HC) climbed into a tie for fourth with Westminster (RMAC), finishing with 41 votes apiece.
Rounding out the top 10 was Western Colorado (RMAC), who fell from seventh to ninth with nine votes while St. Mary’s (HC) climbed back into the top 10 with eight votes.
The Greyhounds return to the road this week as they will travel to Lawton, Okla. on Thursday to take on Cameron at 4:30 p.m. before heading to Wichita Falls, Texas on Saturday for a 1 p.m. bout with MSU Texas.
