PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball team put together a strong second quarter, outscoring Texas A&M-Kingsville 23-13 to pull away with an 80-64 win over the Javelinas Thursday night inside Greyhound Arena.
The Greyhounds wore pink jerseys to honor breast cancer survivors in their Breast Cancer Awareness game, presented by U.S. Bank. The win over the Javelinas (8-14, 5-10 Lone Star Conference) was a crucial one for the Hounds (17-6, 12-3 LSC) as a No. 17 Angelo State loss at No. 20 West Texas A&M put the Hounds just a game back of the Rambelles at the top of the Lone Star Conference standings.
The first quarter was tightly contested through the first nine minutes as Eastern and Kingsville traded the lead seven times with three ties as neither team gained more than a three-point edge. Trailing 12-11, senior forward Treyanna Clay dominated the final minute of the period, scoring all six of Eastern’s points during a 6-1 run to claim a 17-13 edge after one quarter of play.
TAMUK kept the game to within five through the first 4:20 of the second period before a Clay layup with 5:40 to go ignited a 15-0 run that was capped off on a Zamorye Cox three-pointer with 2:54 remaining give Eastern a dominating 40-20 edge.
The Javelinas managed to cut into the Eastern edge by scoring the final six points over the last 2:33 to make it a 40-26 game heading into the halftime break.
The Greyhounds pushed their advantage back to 17 to start the third quarter on a Chelsea Hunter three-pointer before the Javelinas chipped their way back over the next five minutes to narrow the Eastern advantage to 51-40 with 4:51 left in the period.
The Hounds had another counter to the Kingsville comeback efforts as scores by Tilasha Okey and Alivia Lewis pushed the ENMU edge back to 15 with 2:45 left. The Hounds expanded that lead to 16 late in the third on a Clay free throw prior to a TAMUK jumper by Rachel Tapps to set the score at 61-47 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Javelinas once again closed the gap to 11 on a Brynae Thompson bucket with 4:41 remaining to set the score at 71-60, but Lewis came back with a three-point play of her own, followed by a Shelby Jones hookshot on ENMU’s ensuing offensive possession to stretch the edge back to 16 to stifle any sort of Javelinas rally.
Eastern shot 33-of-76 (43.4 percent) from the field while doing a strong job of taking care of the basketball, committing just 11 turnovers in 40 minutes of action. The Hounds defense held the Javelinas to 24-for-59 (40.7 percent) shooting and forced 19 turnovers.
Clay led the ENMU offense, tying a career-high 25 points, converting 10-for-17 from the field and 4-for-6 from the charity stripe. Lewis turned in her fourth double-double of the season, tying a career-best 17 points to go with a team-leading 11 rebounds and a pair of steals. Jones rounded out the double-figure scorers for the Greyhounds, notching 10 points on 4-for-8 from the field and finished a rebound shy of a double-double with nine boards. Cox and Jones each finished with five assists to lead the Hounds passing efforts.
The Greyhounds will now have a day off before hosting Angelo State on Saturday as first place in the Lone Star will be on the line. The Senior Day game, presented by J.P. Stone Community Bank will be the Hounds final home game of the 2018-19 season, as Eastern will honor its three seniors, Clay, Jones, and Dasia Johnson prior to the start of the contest. Saturday’s game is scheduled for a 2 p.m.tip-off.
