PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball team rallied from a 13-point second half deficit to defeat Fort Lewis 58-55 in the night cap of the Lone Star/Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Challenge, presented by McDonald’s and J.P. Stone Community Bank Saturday night at Greyhound Arena.
The Hounds (2-0) and Skyhawks (0-2) traded early scores as junior guard Tilasha Okey opened the ENMU scoring with a three-pointer and a jumper in the paint, while senior guard Dasia Johnson buried a pair of free throws to knot the game up at 7-all with 7:49 to play in the opening period.
Fort Lewis reclaimed the lead with an 8-0 run over the next three minutes to grab its largest lead of the quarter at 15-7 before the Hounds mounted a rally. Trailing 17-9 with 3:45 left, Zamorye Cox made a layup that started a seven-point run, followed by a Johnson three-pointer and a Kamirah Decker turnaround jumper with 1:47 to trim the deficit to 17-16. The Skyhawks scored the final three points of the first quarter to hold the 20-16 edge going into the second.
FLC expanded its advantage to as much as 10, starting the second quarter with a 6-0 run to make it a 26-16 game. The Skyhawks maintained their lead to 30-20 with 4:49 left to play, but the Hounds defense stifled FLC for the remainder of the quarter. Eastern strung together 5-0 run, capped off by an Alivia Lewis layup at the buzzer to make it just a 30-25 deficit going into the halftime break.
The Hounds were limited to just 9-of-28 (32-percent) from the floor and 2-for-11 (18-percent) from three in the opening half, while the Skyhawks made 12-of-28 (43-percent) and 3-of-8 (38-percent) from the arc.
The Hounds struggles continued into the third quarter as the Skyhawks expanded its lead to as much as 13 on a Sydney Candelaria free throw to make it 47-34 with 41 seconds remaining, but Eastern shifted the momentum on its final possession. With six seconds remaining, Johnson found Laura Rowe for an open three-pointer to trim the FLC lead to 47-37 to start a stretch of nine unanswered that continued into the fourth quarter..
To start the final quarter, Treyanna Clay and Shelby Jones each buried a pair of free throws, while a Johnson layup off a Rowe steal with 7:17 to go sliced the Skyhawks lead to just four at 47-43.
A pair of free throws by Fort Lewis expanded its lead back to six at the 5:35 mark, but the Greyhounds had a strong response, stringing together six unanswered off a Decker free throw, a Clay layup, and capped off on a three-pointer by Cox from the right side with 4:36 left to tie the game up at 49.
Back-to-back buckets by the Skyhawks built their lead back to four, but the Hounds once again bounced back on a three-point shot by Rowe to make it a one-point game and then a pair of Clay free throws with 3:02 to go gave Eastern its first lead since Okey’s three-pointer to make it 3-2 in the first quarter.
FLC took back the lead on their next possession on a jumper by Jordan Carter, but that was the last score the Eastern defense would concede for the rest of the game.
With 1:31 remaining, Johnson fed Clay down in the low-post and her layup in the paint gave Eastern the lead for good at 56-55.
Eastern’s swarming defense caused multiple problems for the Skyhawks on their final three possessions, as they forced a bad shot on their first attempt and Cox came up with a big steal on their next possession, forcing Fort Lewis to commit a foul on Clay coming out of a timeout. Clay knocked down a pair of free throws with 12 seconds left to expand the ENMU advantage to 58-55.
On the Skyhawks final possession, Johnson made a big play by ripping the ball away from FLC’s Kayla Herrera at the top of the key, forcing a loose ball that was eventually corralled by Fort Lewis, but time expired before they could get a shot up to give Eastern its second consecutive victory to open the season.
The Greyhounds came up big from the free throw line in the second half, converting on 11-of-15 (73-percent) from the charity stripe, including making seven of their last eight attempts in the fourth quarter.
Clay led all scorers with 12 points, 10 of which came in the final quarter as she converted on all six of her foul shot attempts in the period.
Johnson added 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting from the field and 2-of-5 from the arc while finishing with six boards and a team-leading five assists. Rowe rounded out the double-digit scorers for the Hounds, totaling 10 points to go with four rebounds.
The leading rebounder was Lewis, grabbing nine boards, five on the offensive end to go with seven points and Decker was big defensively with three blocked shots.
The Greyhounds will now prepare for their first regular season road game of the season as the Hounds will travel to Abilene, Texas to take on Abilene Christian at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 17.
