LAWTON, Okla. – The Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball team came up with a pair of big defensive stops and Alivia Lewis knocked down the go-ahead free throw to give the Hounds a huge 68-67 win at Cameron Thursday night.
After the Aggies (7-12, 4-7 Lone Star) knocked down the first shot of the game on a three-pointer by Parfitt McNair, the Hounds (14-5, 9-2 LSC) rallied back with six unanswered, four of which came from senior forward Treyanna Clay to take a 6-3 edge with 7:32 left.
Another McNair three-pointer tied the game up, but the Greyhounds reclaimed the lead off a Kamirah Decker jumper in the paint to set the score at 8-6with 6:33 to go in the opening quarter.
The Hounds held the advantage until a three-pointer by CU’s Chelsea Heidebrecht started 6-0 run to give the Aggies their largest lead of the period at 15-11. A pair of Clay free throws with 1:10 to go narrowed the gap to one at 15-14, but CU scored four of the last six points to push the edge to 19-16 after one quarter of play.
The Greyhounds got off to a strong start in the second as Eastern regathered the lead on back-to-back buckets by Lewis and Clay to make it 20-19 with 8:09 left. However, the Hounds could do little to stop a red-hot Aggies offense that fought back with a 7-0 run of their own to reclaim its largest lead of the half at 26-20.
ENMU closed the gap to one on a pair of occasions, the first coming on a Tilasha Okey three-pointer to make it 26-25 with 4:10 left and again later in the quarter on a Lewis free throw conversion to set the score at 29-28 with 2:43 to go, but the Aggies closed out the quarter with a 9-4 run to possess a 38-32 edge going into the break.
While the Hounds defense did a great job forcing the Aggies into committing 17 first half turnovers, Eastern could do little to curb the blistering Cameron shooting. The Aggies shot 13-of-23 (57 percent) from the floor, which included a red-hot 9-for-13 (69 percent) from the three-point arc.
The Greyhounds defense buckled down to start the second half, but the Hounds couldn’t find the bottom of the net offensively either as neither team scored in the first two minutes. It wasn’t until CU’s Maighan Hedge knocked down a free throw with 7:28 to go to stretch the Cameron advantage to its largest of the contest at 39-32.
Decker got the Greyhounds offense going with 6:43remaining with a layup off a Clay assist, igniting an 8-0 run that was followed by a Clay three-pointer and capped off on a three from Chelsea Hunter with 5:26 remaining to give Eastern its first lead of the second half at 40-39.
Cameron put together a strong response to the ENMU rally, stringing together seven unanswered of their own over the next four minutes to reclaim a six-point edge at 46-40 with 1:51 remaining. The Aggies maintained a six-point edge over the next 1:35 until Clay buried her second three-pointer of the match, cutting the deficit to 50-47 going into the final period.
The Aggies stretched their advantage to five through the first 1:29 to make it a 56-51 game before Eastern surged ahead with six unanswered, thanks to four straight points from Clay prior to Lewis scoring the go-ahead layup with 6:32 left.
Neither team backed down as Cameron answered with six of the next seven points to push the Aggie lead back to four at 62-58 with just over four minutes remaining. However, the Hounds followed suit with five consecutive points, topped off on a Shelby Jones jump shot with 2:47 to go to give Eastern the 63-62 edge.
Three straight free throw conversions allowed Cameron to surge back in-front before Lewis came up with game-tying bucket and was fouled with 1:39left to give ENMU the opportunity to take back the lead. Lewis couldn’t convert on her attempt, but Clay came up with a big offensive board and was immediately fouled. Clay converted both attempts at the charity stripe to put Eastern back ahead by a score of 67-65.
Cameron’s Lejha Smith tied the game at 67 with just over a minute left and the Aggies made a tough defensive stop, giving CU the chance to reclaim the advantage late. With 47 seconds to go, Lewis blocked Ava Battese’s go-ahead jumper and was fouled on the ensuing possession with 19 seconds remaining. With the chance to put Eastern back in the lead, Lewis knocked down one of her two attempts to make it a 68-67.
The Aggies had one last chance to score the game-winner, but the Greyhounds came up with a big defensive stop, allowing ENMU to escape Aggie Gym with the victory.
While the Hounds struggled on the offensive end, converting on just 22-of-60 (37 percent) from the field and 4-of-16 (25 percent) from three-point range, free throw shooting and defense made it possible for the Hounds to win. Eastern converted on 20-of-27 (74 percent) of its free throw attempts and forced the Aggies into committing 26 turnovers. The Hounds’ defense was much stronger in the second half, limiting the Aggies to just 10-for-31 (32 percent) shooting in the second half and 1-of-9 (11 percent) from the three-point arc.
Clay led the Eastern scoring efforts with her second consecutive 23-point game, making 5-of-12 of her shots including going 2-for-2 from the three-point arc. Clay was clutch at the foul line, making a season-high 11-of-12 attempts. She was also able to provide some strong defense for the Greyhounds, tying a team-high four steals along with Decker.
Lewis pieced together the best offensive performance of her young career, scoring a career-high 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting to go with six rebounds and added five more blocks after coming off a career-best six block performance against Texas Woman’s.
Jones led ENMU’s rebounding efforts, tying a season-high nine rebounds and making it the fourth straight game she recorded eight or more rebounds and Zamorye Cox led the Hounds passing efforts with a game-high six assists.
With a win and a West Texas A&M loss at MSU Texas Thursday night, the Greyhounds are now alone in second place in the Lone Star and are just one game back of Angelo State for the top spot.
Eastern will seek another important road win on Saturday as the Hounds will travel to Wichita Falls, Texas for a 1 p.m. tip against MSU Texas.
