Women’s Basketball 2/19/2020 1:49:00 PM Zac Alfers
Women’s Basketball Packs Bags for Final Road Trip of the Regular Season

PORTALES, N.M. – Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball will travel to #3 Texas A&M-Commerce and UT Tyler as it concludes its 2019-20 regular season road schedule this weekend.

SCOUTING THE LIONS

The Lions are off to their best start in program history and enter the weekend with an unblemished 24-0 record and are ranked as the No. 3 team in the nation. Last week, Commerce recorded road wins against Midwestern State and Cameron.

The Lions boast the most potent offense in the Lone Star Conference and lead the league with 77.7 points per game while outscoring their opponents by an average of 22.4 points. On the glass TAMUC averages a conference high 45 rebounds per game and also paces the league with a 7.46 turnover margin as the Lions force 21.6 turnovers each time the take the hardwood.

The backcourt tandem of senior Chania Wright and freshman Dyani Robinson drives the Lions offense. Wright leads the team with 13.2 points per game as the starting shooting guard while Robinson ranks third on the team in scoring with 10.7 points per contest and provides valuable minutes coming off the bench. The pair has also tallied more than 40 assists and at least 30 steals apiece. Helping facilitate the offense is senior point guard Maddison Glass who is scoring 7.8 points per game but does a fantastic job of creating chances for others as she has totaled at team-high 72 assists on the year. On the defensive end of the floor senior forward Alexis Bryant is the team’s most dominant paint presence, averaging 7.9 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and .9 steals per game. Bryant is also a very talented scorer and ranks second on the squad with 11 points per contest.

A big reason for the Lions success this season has been their depth. TAMUC has 11 players who have appeared in at least 20 games this year.

SCOUTING THE PATRIOTS

The Patriots are experiencing the longest losing streak in the conference and have dropped their last nine games including losses to Cameron and Midwestern State last week. The Patriots lone conference win came on Jan. 11 of this year against Texas A&M-International after defeating the Dustdevils in an 86-79 double-overtime thriller.

The Patriots have struggled to find consistent offense and have also found it difficult to keep their opponents from scoring as they own the worse scoring margin in the league and are outscored by nearly 16 points per game. A big contributor to that problem is Tyler’s inability to take care of the basketball. The Patriots commit 19.4 turnovers per game while only forcing their opponents into 13.2 which has led to the second-worst turnover margin in the league (-6.18). One place UTT has shined has been three-point shooting as the rank seventh in three-point shooting percentage (.312%) and ninth in three-point field goals made (144).

The Patriots have just one player averaging double-digit scoring figures and that is junior guard Kelsey Crouse with her 11.2 points per game. Crouse also leads the team with 54 assists and as a defender has swiped 19 steals and rejected seven shots.

Also helping to carry the scoring load is senior guard Beezy Birchette who is averaging nine points per contest while shooting an extremely efficient .400 field goal percentage. Birchette is even more accurate from beyond the arch and has knocked down .463 percent of her long-range attempts. She is also leading the team with 6.7 rebounds per game.

LAST WEEK

Eastern tipped off last week’s homestand with a 50-41 victory over Texas Woman’s in a very competitive defensive battle. ENMU’s chances to secure a first-round bye for the upcoming Lone Star Conference championship took a hit the following Saturday as the Hounds fell 54-52 at the hands of Tarleton State.

The Hounds relied on their stout defensive pressure to will themselves to a victory over TWU despite experiencing and off-shooting night. The Green and Silver held the Pioneers to a 33.3 team shooting percentage and did not allow a single three-pointer with TWU attempting 11 shots from beyond the arch. The Hounds really stepped up their game in the second half as they held TWU to just five made field goals for a total of 17 points in the last 20 minutes of regulation. Senior Natalie DeLonge constantly forced herself inside for easy shots as she finished with a game-high 13 points while junior Alivia Lewis was relentless on the glass and grabbed 12 boards to go along with six points, three assists and a pair of blocks. At the helm of the Greyhound offense was sophomore Zamorye Cox who filled up the stat sheet in multiple categories, adding eight points, five rebounds and five assists.

In the game against Tarleton, the Greyhounds lead for 37 minutes but allowed an untimely 12-0 run to the Texans to close out the ball game which included the eventual game-winning layup with eight seconds left on the clock. The Greyhound defense played well for the majority of the game and forced 19 turnovers while recording 11 steals and four blocked shots but with Eastern running into foul trouble late in the game, the Hounds were unable to hold off the streaking Texans. The backcourt tandem of Cox and redshirt freshman Natalie Stice paced the Hounds offensively as they each finished with a game-high 15 points. Cox added five rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals while Stice finished shooting 50 percent from the field on 4-for-8 shooting.

A DEFENSIVE FORCE

The backbone of the 2019-20 women’s basketball team has been its tenacious defense and it ranks in the top five of most defensive categories amongst Lone Star Conference competitors. The Green and Silver have limited their opposition to 58.4 points per game and own an eight-point scoring margin with both statistics ranking fifth in the league. Eastern does a fantastic job of closing out on long-range shooters and have limited their opposition to a 27 percent shooting percentage when attempting shots from beyond the arch, the lowest mark in the LSC. Inside the arch teams have not fared much better when facing the impenetrable Greyhound defense as they rank fourth in the league with a 36.7 defensive shooting percentage from the field. The Hounds force 22.8 turnovers per game and own the fifth-best turnover margin in the league at 2.5.

The Hounds boast some of the best individual defenders in the league as well. Point guard Zamorye Cox has proven herself to be one of the elite defenders along the perimeter in her sophomore season and has shown an aptitude for picking people’s pockets. Cox paces the league with 64 total steals while averaging 2.7 per game. Post player Alivia Lewis is also a capable defender from the low block and has rejected 31 shots so far in her junior campaign. Lewis averages 1.3 blocks per game which ranks tenth in the conference.

CHAIRWOMEN OF THE BOARDS
A big reason for the Hounds success on the defensive end of the court has been their relentless effort on the boards. The High Plains squad averages 43.7 rebounds per game and have hauled in 1049 total on the year which ranks second and third in the conference respectively. The Greyhounds are averaging the second-most offensive rebounds per game with 16 and rank third in the league with an 8.3 rebounding margin.

Individually, Lewis and fellow post player Jasmine Williams are two of the top rebounders in the LSC. Both players average 8.3 boards per game which is tied for the second-best mark amongst conference competitors. Lewis and Williams are also double-double machines and have recorded seven apiece.

PLAYOFF PUSH

With just four games remaining in the regular season the playoff hunt is heating up as teams battle for position with the LSC Tournament approaching. The tournament will feature the top 12 schools in the conference with the No. 1 through No. 4 seeds receiving first-round byes. Round one will be held on-campus while the final eight teams will advance to the Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas. Currently, the Hounds own a 11-7 league record and are tied for the No. 5 spot in the conference standings. A strong finish to the season and some sliding towards the top of the conference leader board could give the Hounds an opportunity to climb into that No. 4 seed and secure a first-round bye.

REGIONAL POWERHOUSE

The Hounds have been ranked in all 13 additions of the D2SIDA South Central Regional Poll. The Hounds rank No. 8 in the Week 12 Regional Rankings with the opportunity to climb even further with some quality wins down the stretch. The Hounds have already defeated three teams in the current rankings with their wins over Fort Lewis, Lubbock Christian and Angelo State. Eastern’s toughest test of the regular season could come this Thursday when the Hounds face the LSC frontrunner and the #3 team in the nation, Texas A&M-Commerce.

With conference tournaments fast approaching, the NCAA will start to release regional rankings that will serve as the building block for the NCAA Tournament. The top eight schools in each region will receive bids to the NCAA Regional Playoffs. The Hounds are currently ranked No. 9 in the first release of the NCAA South Central Regional poll and will have to climb up at another spot if they hope to secure a spot in their third NCAA Tournament in four years.