PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball team rallied from a 12-point second half deficit to take down No. 17 Angelo State 71-67 in the Hounds’ final home game of the 2018-19 season.
With the win in the Senior Day game, presented by J.P. Stone Community Bank, the Greyhounds (18-6, 13-3 LSC) moved into a three-way tie for first place in the Lone Star with the Rambelles (18-4, 13-3 LSC) and No. 20 West Texas A&M (21-3, 13-3 LSC).
It was a back-and-forth battle early in the first quarter. After Angelo State converted a three-pointer on its second possession of the game, the Hounds rallied with four unanswered with scores by senior forwards Shelby Jones and Treyanna Clay to take their first lead of the contest at 4-3 with 7:59 to go in the period.
The lead changed hands three more times before a pair of Alivia Lewis free throws ignited a 6-0 run that included a Zamorye Cox fastbreak layup off a Clay steal followed by a jumper from Clay with 2:54 left to give Eastern its largest lead of the quarter at 12-8.
ASU fought back to tie the score at 14 within the final minute, but a Kamirah Decker jumper off a Chelsea Hunter assist with 39 seconds to go sent the Greyhounds into the second period with a 16-14 edge.
Following a Rambelles score on the opening possession of the second period to tie the game, the Hounds countered with scores on back-to-back possessions by Clay and Lewis to push the ENMU advantage back to four with 8:10 left until halftime.
Angelo State rallied with eight unanswered over a 2:27 stretch to reclaim a 24-20 edge with 5:43 to go until the break. The Belles pushed their advantage to as much as five at 27-22 with 1:59 left.
The Hounds and Rambelles traded blows over the final two minutes as a Hunter three-pointer and jumper in the paint between a pair of ASU layups made it a four-point game prior to Tilasha Okey burying a big three-pointer just before the buzzer to cut the Eastern deficit to 31-30 at the half.
The Belles made some strong second half adjustments as Angelo scored seven unanswered points in the first 1:16 to push the ASU lead to 38-30. The Hounds managed to narrow the lead was five before ASU extended its advantage to as large as 12 at 53-41 with 58 seconds left in the period.
The Greyhounds trailed 55-45 heading into the fourth quarter as Eastern pieced together an inspired comeback in the final quarter. After Angelo State scored the first bucket of the period, Jones scored the first four points during a 10-0 run over a two-and-a-half minute stretch that was closed out on a Hunter three, closing the gap to 57-55 with 6:48 remaining.
An ASU three-pointer pushed the edge back to five, but the Hounds came back with seven straight points scored by Clay to give Eastern a 62-60 lead, its first lead since the 7:32 mark of the second quarter.
Angelo State battled back with four straight to retake a 64-62 lead with 2:30 left, but Clay came up big again for the Hounds. After her free throw cut the deficit to one, she scored the go-ahead layup off a Cox assist to give ENMU the 65-64 advantage.
The Greyhounds defense came up with a pair of strong defensive stops while Hunter and Lewis were able to each knock down a pair of free throws to stretch the edge to 69-64 with 15 seconds to go.
ASU’s Dezirae Hampton sank a three-pointer with 15 seconds left to trim the Hounds’ lead to two, but Cox was able to put the game away by burying a pair of clutch free throws with eight seconds left to secure the 71-67 victory.
The Greyhounds outscored the Rambelles 26-12 in the final period after getting outmatched by a 24-15 margin in the third quarter. While Eastern struggled from the field offensively, shooting 21-for-66 (31.8 percent) and 4-for-18 (22.2 percent) from the three-point arc, the Hounds were clutch from the charity stripe, converting 25-of-32 (78.1 percent), including 23-of-28 (82.1 percent) in the second half. The Eastern defense was also able to come up big, holding the Belles to a season-low 26-of-81 (32.1 percent) from the field and 10-for-35 (28.6 percent) while limiting the Belles to a season-low five free throw attempts (5-for-5).
In her final game inside Greyhound Arena, Clay led the ENMU offensive efforts with 23 points on 7-of-13 shooting and 9-of-12 from the charity stripe and tied a season-high 11 rebounds, eight of which came on the offensive end. Clay was also stout on the defensive end as well, matching a season-best four steals.
Hunter tied her season-high with 12 points on 4-of-9 from the field and 2-for-4 from the three-point arc to go with four assists. Cox turned in a 10-point effort to go with a career-best eight rebounds and a team-leading five assists. Jones rounded out the double-digit scorers in her last game in Portales, notching 10 points while converting a perfect 6-for-6 from the foul line.
The Greyhounds finish the 2018-19 season with a 12-1 home record, setting the most-wins at home in a single season in program history while tying the fewest losses on five other occasions, the most recent coming during the 1994-95 campaign where the Hounds went 9-1 inside Greyhound Arena.
The Hounds honored its three seniors: Clay, Jones and Dasia Johnson prior to the start of today’s contest.
Eastern will now close out the regular season with a four-game road stretch, starting with a pair of games at Texas A&M-Commerce on Thursday, Feb. 21 at 4:30 p.m. before taking on Tarleton State at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
