With both teams undefeated in Lone Star Conference play, the Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball team is prepared to battle for LSC supremacy as the Hounds will face LSC co-leader Angelo State at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. Eastern will officially wrap up its six game road stand on Saturday against Texas A&M-Kingsville at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

LAST TIME OUT
Eastern (9-3, 4-0 LSC) kept its undefeated conference record in-tact with a pair of hard-fought road games at Western New Mexico and UT-Permian Basin last week.
The Hounds avenged their loss in Silver City last year by picking up a 58-46 victory over the Lady Mustangs on Thursday to snap their three-game road losing streak. ENMU had to overcome a slow start as the Hounds trailed by as much as five in the first quarter and were down by two heading into the second. The Greyhounds found their rhythm in the second period, opening the quarter with a 9-0 run and outscoring the Lady Mustangs 16-7 to take a 31-24 lead into the halftime break.
Western rallied back to briefly take a one-point lead at the 5:22 mark of the third quarter, but freshman forward Kamirah Decker ignited a 17-1 scoring run over the next eight minutes to take their largest lead at 50-35 with 7:42 to go in the fourth quarter.
On Saturday, the Hounds faced a strong challenge from the Falcons, who were seeking their first LSC win. Eastern started the off hot, outscoring UTPB 13-4 in the first 4:16 of the game. However, the Falcons were persistent, cutting the Hounds advantage to just three at the end of the first quarter and to just a two-point lead at the halftime break.
Permian Basin managed to tie the game on their first possessions of the third and fourth quarters, but the Greyhounds prevented the Falcons from taking the lead both times as the Hounds never trailed throughout the contest. With ENMU leading by just two with 1:09 to go, senior forward Treyanna Clay and freshman guard Zamorye Cox knocked down a pair of free throws on back-to-back possessions in-between a defensive stop to pull away with the win.

SCOUTING THE RAMBELLES
Angelo State enters the contest as the No. 2 team in the South Central Region and are ranked No. 18 in NCAA Division II with a 9-1 overall record and a 4-0 mark in LSC play. Last week, the Rambelles handed Texas Woman’s its first conference loss of the season with an 84-61 victory in San Angelo.
The Belles are led by one of the top all-around players in the LSC in senior guard Marquita Daniels, who ranks second in the conference with a 16.0 points per game average and tops the league with 34 steals, averaging 3.8 steals per game. Daniels is also the team’s best offensive facilitator, averaging 4.1 assists per game, ranking fourth in the LSC.
Junior forward De’Anira Moore is also one of the best scorers in the Lone Star, ranking sixth at 15.2 ppg and is third in the conference in rebounding at 8.3 rpg. Senior guard Dezirae Hampton rounds out the double-figure scorers for ASU at 14.8 ppg and ranks fourth in the LSC at 2.4 spg.
As a team, the Rambelles are the top scoring offense in the conference with a 78.3 ppg average while also leading the conference in scoring defense, allowing just 58.0 ppg for a 20.3 ppg scoring margin.

HISTORY WITH THE RAMBELLES
Since the teams first played on Feb. 4, 1985, the Belles control the series with a 44-24 record and currently own a three-game winning streak over ENMU. Despite losing both contests to ASU last season, the Hounds were very competitive in both games, losing by just three in each match.
The Greyhounds have played well in each of the last two games in San Angelo. In last year’s match, the Hounds missed a game-tying three at the buzzer to fall 59-56. Eastern was victorious in San Angelo the season prior on Jan. 21, 2017. coming away with a 76-72 win in overtime over the Rambelles.

SCOUTING THE JAVELINAS
Texas A&M-Kingsville enters the week at 4-7 overall and are 1-3 in LSC games. Last week, the Javelinas fell to No. 25 St. Mary’s 71-57 in a non-conference match in San Antonio on Jan. 2 before coming away with their first conference win 72-70 over Texas Woman’s at home on Saturday.
The Javelinas offensive efforts are controlled by junior guard Brynae Thompson, who is scoring at a 14.6 ppg clip and is converting on 48 percent of her shot attempts. Senior forward Cloe Lane ranks second on the team in scoring at 9.4 ppg while leading the team in rebounds (70, 6.4 rpg), steals (23), and blocked shots (9). Junior guard Rachel Tapps is TAMUK’s top passer with 18 assists, followed by Lane who has 17.
The Javelinas have struggled on the offensive end as a team, ranking second to last in the LSC at 56.1 ppg while also giving up the ninth-most points at 64.8 ppg.

HISTORY WITH THE JAVELINAS
The Greyhounds control the all-time series against Texas A&M-Kingsville with a 36-31 record in the all-time series and have won six of the last nine games against the Javelinas. However, the Hounds have had some tough luck against Texas A&M-Kingsville as the Javelinas have won three of the last four. Eastern will be looking to avenge a 69-62 loss at TAMUK on Feb. 24, 2018, but the Hounds managed to get a 63-52 win in Kingsville in their prior meeting on Jan. 19, 2017.

HOUNDS SECOND THE MOTION
During Eastern’s first 12 games of the season, the Hounds have made some strong adjustments between the first and second quarters. Despite the Hounds only outscoring their opponents by a 205-194 margin in the first quarter, ENMU is outscoring the opposition by nearly seven times that margin in the second period with a 206-136 gap. The adjustments were well on display in their win at Western New Mexico with a 16-7 scoring difference during the second period after getting outscored 17-15 in the first.

SECOND CHANCES
Despite some offensive struggles in the last two games, the Greyhounds did a phenomenal job of utilizing second chance opportunities against WNMU and UTPB. Against the Lady Mustangs, the Hounds finished with the second-most offensive rebounds of the season with 17. The Hounds controlled the glass in both games, outrebounding Western 32-22 and UTPB by a 42-38 margin.

SNAPPING THE ROAD SKID
The Greyhounds opened the season with a 0-3 record in road games during the 2018 portion of the season, but have been able to get over the hump thus far in 2019 with a pair of road victories. On top of Eastern snapping its road losing streak, the Hounds are off to their first 4-0 start in LSC play since the 2016-17 season when ENMU went on to win its first 10 conference games and finish as the Lone Star Conference Co-Champion.

OPPORTUNISTIC SENIOR
Senior forward Shelby Jones was opportunistic of her scoring opportunities in Eastern’s three games last week. The Clovis, N.M. native converted on 11-of-18 (61 percent) of her shot attempts after knocking down 46 percent of her shots from the floor in the nine previous games. Jones has been a consistent presence for Eastern at the foul line all season for ENMU, converting on 11 of 13 (85 percent) of her free throw attempts.

R&B EXTRAORDINAIRE
Sophomore forward Alivia Lewis has remained a staple of the Eastern New Mexico defense as the team’s leader in rebounds and blocks. She continues to hold the Lone Star Conference lead as the only player with more than 100 rebounds with 111 and is averaging 9.3 per game, nearly a full rebound ahead of Tatyanna McFarland from Western New Mexico in second at 8.5. Lewis continues to be one of the best shot blockers in the conference as well, ranking third with 21 total blocks and is averaging 1.8 blocks per game.