Women’s Basketball 3/7/2020 5:21:00 PM Zac Alfers
Women’s Basketball Demonstrated Tremendous Effort and Hustle in Semifinal Loss to Commerce

Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball battled for the entire 40 minutes of Saturday’s LSC semifinal game against Texas A&M-Commerce but came up just short, falling 68-59 inside Comerica Center.

Eastern proved it’s an extremely resilient bunch and never gave in despite facing a 21-point deficit early in the fourth quarter. The Hounds flew around the court, diving for loose balls and sacrificing their bodies to secure rebounds.

The Greyhounds were able to keep themselves in the ballgame by crashing the offensive glass, finishing with 22 boards on that side of the floor. The frontcourt duo of junior Alivia Lewis and senior Jasmine Williams provided an honorable amount of energy and were able to keep their teammates up as the High Plains squad continued to fend off different rallies from the Lions. Lewis matched a game-high with 12 rebounds while Williams added 11.

The Green and Silver fired 87 total shots in the ball game compared to 55 from Commerce but the iron was not friendly to the Hounds as they finished with a 27.6 team field goal percentage. The Lions were able to knock down crucial shots when they needed to, converting at a 40 percent clip from the field.

ENMU was able to force turnovers at a high rate as they forced the Lions into 21 turnovers while only committing 11 themselves. Sophomore Zamorye Cox led all competitors as she swiped four steals herself.

Cox has now totaled 83 steals on the year and set a new single-season program record, breaking Stepanie Brockman’s mark of 80 steals set during the 1992-93 season. The Portales, N.M. native also totaled a game-high 20 points and dished out five assists.

The Greyhounds threatened to make things interesting coming out of the halftime break and mounted a 10-1 run between the end of the second and early part of the third quarter highlighted by a driving layup from redshirt freshman Natalie Stice.

Stice finished second on the team in scoring with 13 points to go along with three steals while senior Natalie DeLonge added 12 points and grabbed four rebounds.

Cox knocked down a huge three-pointer to trim the Lion’s lead to single-digits as the Hounds trailed 60-51 with 1:46 left in the ball game. The Hounds outscored the Lions 25-15 in the final quarter of play but were unable to establish a lead of their own.

The Green and Silver will now await to hear the verdict of the NCAA DII South Central Regional Selection Committee to see if they have done enough to be invited to the regional tournament as the top eight ranked teams will receive invites. Eastern entered the LSC tournament ranked No. 9 but defeated the No. 8 seed Tarleton State in Thursday’s matchup and outlasted the No. 7 seed Angelo State who also suffered a loss in the quarterfinal round.

The selection show will be aired on Sunday at 8 p.m. and can be followed on NCAA.com