12/1/2018 | Women’s Basketball | Box Score
PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball team is off to its best start since the 2005-06 season after the Hounds defeated Cameron 85-65 on Saturday at Greyhound Arena.
In the game sponsored by Roosevelt County Electric Cooperative, the Hounds (6-1, 2-0 Lone Star Conference) defeated the Aggies (2-6, 0-2 LSC) by a 20-point margin, Eastern’s largest margin of victory over Cameron since Nov. 30, 1999 when the Hounds beat the Aggies 79-54 in Portales.
Cameron jumped out to an early 5-0 lead in the first 1:34 before senior guard Dasia Johnson hit a three-pointer and Treyanna Clay knocked down a free throw to cut the Hounds deficit to one with 7:38 to go in the opening quarter.
The Aggies built its largest advantage to seven at 19-12 with 45 seconds left, but on the Hounds following offensive possession, Johnson was able to drive the lane and make a layup to trim the Cameron lead to just five heading into the second period.
The Eastern defense clamped down to open the second quarter, not allowing the Aggies to score a single point in the first 6:28 during an 11-0 run. Freshman guard Zamorye Cox buried a three-pointer at the 8:12 mark to give ENMU the lead for good, making the score 21-19. Five different players scored during the Hounds big run that was capped off on an Alivia Lewis jumper in the paint to make it a 25-19 ENMU advantage with 4:46 left until halftime.
After the Aggies broke the six-plus minute scoreless stretch at the 3:32 mark, the Greyhounds answered by scoring seven unanswered, capped off on a pair of Clay free throws with 1:12 to go, taking largest lead of the half at 32-21.
Cameron scored twice over the next 50 seconds before Johnson knocked down a layup in the paint just before the buzzer to send Eastern into the half with a 34-25 edge.
Eastern limited the Aggies to just six points on 2-of-14 (14-percent) shooting from the floor in the second quarter and held CU to 0-for-7 shooting from the three-point arc.
The Aggies stayed to within nine at 45-36 with 5:43 to go in the third quarter before the Hounds pulled away over the next five minutes. Eastern took its largest lead of the period on a Tilasha Okey three-pointer from the left side, setting the score to 62-43. Cameron managed to knock down a three-pointer before the end of the quarter to set the score at 62-46 heading into the fourth.
The Hounds led by as much by as much as 24 in the final period when Clay was able to convert a three-point play and two possessions later, knocked down a pair of free throws to set the score to 78-54.
ENMU managed to shoot a blistering 50-percent from the floor on 19-of-38 shooting while converting on 5-of-9 (56-percent) from three-point range. The Greyhounds defense limited a Cameron team that was averaging 74.2 points per game on 40-percent shooting heading into the weekend to it’s second-lowest scoring output of the season, giving up just 65 points on 35-percent shooting from the floor, 25-percent from three and forced 24 turnovers.
The Greyhounds finished with four players scoring in double-figures, led by Clay with 16 points while dishing out a career-high four assists and tying a career-best four steals. Johnson turned in another strong offensive performance, scoring a season-high 14 points on 6-for-13 shooting and 2-for-2 from the three-point arc. Johnson also finished with a team-leading five assists, the fifth game this season that she recorded five or more assists in a game.
After setting a new career-high scoring mark with 12 points last week against Colorado State-Pueblo, Okey topped the mark again with 14 points against the Aggies, converting on all four free throw attempts to go with a pair of three-pointers. Sophomore guard Chelsea Hunter rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points on 4-of-6 from the field and 2-of-3 from the three-point arc to go with a season-high three steals.
Lewis led the rebounding efforts for the Hounds with 12 boards, her fourth consecutive game with 12 or more rebounds while also recording a pair of blocked shots and two steals.
The Greyhounds will return to non-conference play on Saturday, Dec. 8 as the Hounds host Northern New Mexico at 2 p.m. inside Greyhound Arena.
