PORTALES, N.M. – Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball returns to Greyhound Arena this weekend as it hosts UT Permian Basin and Western New Mexico in a pair of in-divisional matchups.

The Hounds face the Falcons on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. presented by San Juan Village before taking on the Mustangs on Saturday at 2 p.m. sponsored by Sievers Sport Medicine.

LAST WEEK

Eastern overcame a pair of slow starts last week as it finished strong and strung together back-to-back victories over Texas A&M-International and Texas A&M-Kingsville.

The Hounds recovered from a nine-point first half deficit as they defeated International 68-60 to begin their road trip. Redshirt freshman Natalie Stice exploded offensively as she led all scorers with 22 points on a 8-for-14 shooting night. Sophomore Zamorye Cox turned in a complete game and contributed 16 points, five rebounds and four steals while senior Natalie DeLonge recorded her first double-double as a Greyhound, finishing with 14 points and 15 rebounds. Eastern used efficient three-point shooting to keep themselves in the ball game as the High Plains squad buried ten field goals from beyond the arch and connected on 38.5 percent of their shots from deep. The Green and Silver won the rebounding battle as they out-rebounded TAMIU 41-32. Defensively, the Hounds forced 21 turnovers which they turned into 17 points on the other end of the floor. Eastern continued to get the ball up court in a hurry and finished with 15 fast break points.

ENMU registered its second-straight victory following another strong second half performance as it beat Kingsville 60-45. Three Greyhound players recorded double-digit scoring figures led by Cox who had 15 to go along with five assists and a pair of steals. DeLonge added 12 points while junior Alivia Lewis finished with ten points and a game-high nine rebounds. The Hounds knocked down its first three shots of the game as they jumped out to a 18-11 advantage at the end of the first quarter before falling into a shooting slump. Eastern was held to eight points in the second quarter as their seven-point lead shrunk to two points. In the second half, the Hounds took over as they out-scored the Javelinas 34-21 in the final quarters of play as their tough defense halted any momentum Kingsville was able to establish.

SCOUTING THE FALCONS

The Falcons experienced mixed results last week beginning with a 81-63 victory over UT Tyler before falling to #3 Texas A&M-Commerce by a 81-60 final. The road has not been kind to UTPB recently, as they have lost their last five away games.

Permian Basin has struggled defensively in the first half of the season and ranks in the bottom half of the conference in many key statistical categories. The Falcons rank 14th in points allowed per game (68.2), 16th in defensive field-goal percentage (42.3 %) and 13th in defensive three-point field-goal percentage (31.6 %). UTPB has shined however, in forcing turnovers and has forced 440 on the year as they own the second-best turnover margin at 3.68 while their 13.95 steals per game leads the league.

In her first collegiate season, guard Holly Hemmeline has shown she has all the attributes to be a dominant player at the Division II level. Hemmeline leads her team with 13.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.6 steals per game. She is shooting 39.1 percent from the floor, 33.3 percent from beyond the arch and 82.1 percent from the charity stripe.
Also contributing to the offensive workload is forward Lemia Ntor-Ue and guard Rory Carter. Ntor-Ue ranks second on the squad with 11.4 points per game while Carter averages 10.3 points per game to round out the Falcons double-digit scorers.

Leading the Falcons in rebounding is post player Alxus Quaadman who averages 7.2 per game. Quaadman is also an extremely capable defender and has swiped 31 steals and rejected 23 blocks.

SCOUTING THE MUSTANGS

The Mustangs enter the contest after suffering a 76-53 loss to Texas A&M-Commerce before salvaging the weekend with a dominant 73-40 victory over UT Tyler. Western has won three of their last four games and seem to have found some momentum entering the second half of the season. The Mustangs have proven to be resilient on the road and own a better road record (4-5) than home (2-5).

WNMU own the third best three-point shooting percentage in the league as they convert at a 34.8 percent clip from beyond the arch. Despite their efficiency from deep, the Mustangs struggle to score points consistently as evidenced by their 56.2 points per game which is the third-lowest mark in the league. Western also commits an extremely high number of turnovers (21.3 per game) and they own the second-worst turnover margin amongst conference competitors at -6.89.

Senior guard Paulina Rodriguez serves as the team’s go-to scoring option, averaging 9.3 points and a team-high 1.8 assists per game. Rodriguez is a big part of the reason why the Mustangs are so effective from long range as she paces the team with 34 made three-point field goals and shoots 34.7 percent from downtown.

Senior forward Alicia Mardis leads the squad in both points (9.8) and rebounds (7.8) per game. Mardis is also a great passer and has dished out 21 assists from the post position.

Leading the Mustangs onto the court is fourth-year Head Coach Lauren Unger. Unger owns a 21-76 overall record and coached Jordan Gutierrez who reached 1,000 points in her career during the 2016-17 season.

I’LL TAKE A DOUBLE-DOUBLE

Alivia Lewis is a dominant presence on the low post and is averaging 12 points and a team-high 8.9 rebounds per game. Lewis has posted six double-doubles this season which is tied for the most in the conference.

Fellow post player Jasmine Williams is also a double-double machine and recorded her fifth of the year against Angelo State where she posted 15 points and 11 rebounds on a seven for ten shooting night. Williams is now tied for third in the conference with five double-doubles.

Western Oregon transfer Natalie DeLonge joined the double-double party last week against International after recording her first of her Greyhound career with 14 points and 15 rebounds. DeLonge averaged a double-double last week averaging 13 points and ten rebounds per game against International and Kingsville.

CAREER COACHING MILESTONE

Josh Prock enters his 12th season as a head coach, his seventh as the leader of the ENMU women’s basketball program and recorded his 200th NCAA career victory last week. Prock now owns a 200-127 overall record with a 92-95 mark with the Hounds. With ten games left in the season, Prock has a legitimate chance to earn his 100th win as the leader of the ENMU women’s basketball team. Prock is currently the second winningest coach in program history but if he can break the century mark he would join ENMU legend Head Coach Wayne Moore as the second coach to reach the 100 win threshold.

CRACKING THE STARTING LINEUP

Redshirt freshman Natalie Stice made her first two collegiate starts last weekend and did not disappoint. Stice averaged 15 points per game in those starts which included a 22 point outburst as she set a new career-high. The Tahoka, Texas native knocked down six three-pointers against International which moves her into a tie for the fourth-most in the single-game program record book. Since cracking the starting lineup, Stice is shooting 8-for-13 from beyond the arch for an impressive 61.5 three-point shooting percentage.

REGIONAL POWERHOUSE

The Hounds now own an 13-5 overall record (7-5 LSC) and have been ranked in all ten additions of the D2SIDA South Central Regional Poll. The Hounds sit in the No. 8 spot in the Week 9 Regional Rankings with the opportunity to climb even further with some quality wins in the second half of the season. Eastern will face four more regionally ranked opponents before the LSC Tournament including rematches with Angelo State and Lubbock Christian as well as a home game against Tarleton State followed by a game with the #3 team in the nation, Texas A&M-Commerce on the road. The Hounds have already defeated two teams in the current rankings with their wins over Fort Lewis and Lubbock Christian.

WEEKDAY WARRIORS

Most people can’t wait for the weekend but the Hounds have suffered all of their losses on Saturday, posting a 4-5 record in weekend games. When playing during the week, the Green and Silver are 9-0 including a flawless 6-0 record when playing on Thursdays. With the remainder of the season being played on either Thursday or Saturday, the Hounds will have to snap their sluggish play on the weekends in order to get themselves back on track. Last week the Green and Silver did exactly that as they snapped its three-game losing skid on Saturdays with a win over Texas A&M-Kingsville.

A DEFENSIVE FORCE

Point guard Zamorye Cox has proven herself to be one of the elite defenders along the perimeter in her sophomore season. Cox ranks second in the league with 51 total steals while her average of 2.8 per game is tied for the best in the LSC.