Women’s Basketball Falls To UT Permian Basin in Tough Conference Matchup

Women’s Basketball Falls To UT Permian Basin in Tough Conference Matchup

Women’s Basketball 1/11/2020 3:23:00 PM Zac Alfers

ODESSA, Texas – In an extremely competitive and high-energy ball game that wasn’t decided until the final minutes, the Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball team fell to UT Permian Basin 71-63 Saturday afternoon.

Senior Jasmine Williams recorded her second straight double-double finishing with a career-high 23 points and 12 rebounds. Williams had the hot hand the entire game, shooting 80 percent from the field and knocking down seven of her eight free throw attempts. Fellow post player Natalie DeLonge added 11 points and eight boards while sophomore Zamorye Cox finished with seven points to go along with six rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals.

Both teams played outstanding defense with the difference being the Falcons ability to connect from beyond the arch. The Hounds went 4-for-23 from three-point range while UTPB went 11-for-27 from deep for a 40.7 percent shooting clip. The Hounds lead for the majority of the game and were up 60-58 with 4:15 left in the game but, the Falcons refused to give up and finished \ strong down the stretch.

Redshirt sophomore Jena Mehlbrech secured the defensive rebound before sending a perfect overhead pass to DeLonge in stride for a fast break layup and the first points of the game. A few possessions later the Hounds used some timely passing around the perimeter to offset the Falcons’ defense and get them out of position. Cox found Mehlbrech wide open on the right wing as Mehlbrech knocked down the three-pointer to give the Hounds the 7-2 advantage.

With UTPB battling to get back into the game, Cox missed on a contested shot from deep but was able to haul in her own rebound. The Portales, N.M. native drove to the basket as the defense collapsed on her and found Williams rolling to the paint for and easy bucket. Neither team was able to pull away as the Hounds led 15-14 at the end of the first quarter.

Trailing by two the Hounds found Williams isolated in the corner. The South Carolina State transfer caught the ball and spun away from her defender before driving the baseline and laying the ball off the glass to tie the game 21-21. Junior Laura Rowe drove to the elbow and sent a well-timed bounce pass to DeLonge who made a nice backdoor cut before converting the layup to put the Hounds back up by two.

Both teams were plagued with the turnover bug early with the Hounds committing ten and the Falcons nine. Eastern continued to out hustle their opponents on the boards and used their effective rebounding to combat its struggles with possession as they went to the locker room tied 31-31 at the half.

The Falcons scored the first basket of the second half while the Hounds answered with nine consecutive points to push their lead to 40-33 midway through the third quarter. The run was sparked by Cox who caught the ball behind the three-point arch and drove past her defender before pulling up at the free-throw line and burying the jumper.

UTPB used its swarming defense to close the gap and pull within two points, trailing 43-41 with less than three minutes on the clock in the third. Williams was able to jump over her defender and pull down another offensive rebound before going back up with it and sinking the contested layup. With Cox sitting due to foul trouble the Falcons came all the way back and thanks to effective three-point shooting built their own lead as the Hounds trailed 52-48 entering the fourth.

To begin the fourth quarter Cox was able to split the double team and drive to the basket and sent a perfect bounce pass through traffic to DeLonge for an easy layup, trimming the deficit to two. With the ballgame tied 60-60, the Falcons buried back-to-back shots from deep to push their lead back to six and seal the game.

The Green and Silver return to their home court next week as the face #1 Lubbock Christian on Thursday followed by another tough in-divisional matchup against Angelo State on Saturday.