Women’s Basketball Prepared for First Road Trip of 2020

Women’s Basketball Prepared for First Road Trip of 2020

PORTALES, N.M. – Eastern New Mexico women’s basketball will pack its bags for the first time during the new year as it prepares for a pair of road games against Western New Mexico and UT Permian Basin this weekend.

LAST WEEK

Eastern faced arch-rival West Texas A&M last for the second time this season last Saturday afternoon and despite a valiant run down the stretch the Hounds fell 58-51.

Eastern jumped out to a 6-0 lead to begin the game before WT answered with seven consecutive points of their own. Freshman point guard Zamorye Cox would swipe her lone steal of the game on the following possession and converted the fast break layup to put the Hounds back up 8-7. The Lady Buffs rattled off nine straight points to close out the first quarter to gain a 17-8 advantage.

The Green and Silver struggled to break through WT’s tough zone defense and shot just 26.7 percent from the field in the second quarter. The Lady Buffs continued to feed the ball to their post players and finished the first half with 22 points in the paint and took a 33-18 lead into the locker room.

The Hounds held their opponents to just two made field goals while converting on 41.2 percent of their attempts as they put together their best quarter of play in the final ten minutes of the game. With 1:47 left on the clock, junior guard Chelsea Hunter fed the ball to Cox who buried a deep three-pointer to trim the deficit to eight. The Buffs went just three for eight from the charity stripe in the fourth but did enough to hold off the streaking Greyhounds.

SCOUTING THE MUSTANGS

Western New Mexico was able to close out 2019 with their first LSC victory of the season with a 53-43 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville however, the Mustangs have yet to crack the win column during the new year after suffering losses to Lubbock Christian and Angelo State last week.

The Mustangs shoot very well from beyond the arch and own the fifth-best three-point percentage, posting a 32.2 percent clip as a team. Despite an efficient field goal percentage from deep, Western averages 56.3 points per contest which is the third-lowest mark in the league.

So far this season WNMU has struggled to protect the basketball and commit 21.9 turnovers per game and a negative six turnover margin.

Offensively, the Mustangs will look to senior forward Alicia Mardis as the only player averaging double-digit scoring figures with a team-high 10.8 points per game. Mardis ranks fifth in the conference with three double-doubles and has turned in two separate 20 point games. The Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. native also averages 8.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game.

Guards Alexis Jones and Paulina Rodriguez have also contributed for the Mustangs so far this season, averaging 9.6 and 8.6 points per game respectively. The pair is also very capable on the defensive end and have combined for 43 steals between the both of them.

SCOUTING THE FALCONS

UT Permian Basin enters the week in the midst of a three-game losing streak after falling to Angelo State (74-45) and Lubbock Chrisitan (94-49) last weekend. Over the last three games, the Falcons have surrendered nearly 82.7 points per game, a staggering number when compared to their 68.2 season average.

UTPB has had a rough time limiting opponents field goal percentage and forcing its opponents into difficult shots. The Falcons own the third-lowest defensive field goal percentage (40.9%) and the fourth-lowest defensive three-point percentage (32.8%) in the LSC.

The Falcons have shown an aptitude to crash the offensive boards and rank second in the league with 203 offensive boards and corral 15.6 per game. On the other end of the court UTPB struggles to pull down the defensive rebound and only manage 22.5 per contest, the third-lowest mark in the conference.

Freshman guard Holly Hemmeline has established herself as one of the Falcons most reliable weapons and leads the team with 12.1 points and 3.2 assists per game. Defensively, Hemmeline is one of the best pick-pockets in the league and is tied for the second-most steals with 31.

Senior forward Lemia Ntor-Ue and freshman guard Rory Carter average 11.4 and 10.4 points per game respectively to round out a well-balanced offensive attack for the Falcons. Another freshman who is turning in quality minutes for UTPB is post player Alexus Quaadman. Quaadman leads the team with 6.3 rebounds per game and has also recorded eight blocked shots.

AND NOW LET’s KICK OF 2020

With the 2019 portion of the schedule complete Head Coach Josh Prock and company will now turn their attention to the final 16 games of the regular season beginning this weekend on the road. The Green and Silver will face four divisional foes over the course of the next two weeks and some wins will help them climb the standings. The Hounds enter the weekend with an in-divisional record of 0-2, and will need to pick up some wins against in-division opponents as next week’s homestand against Lubbock Christian and Angelo State will be a tough task as divisional opponents for the Hounds.

A DEFENSIVE FORCE

The High Plains squad has relied on its aggressive defense to keep them in games all season long and they rank in the top five in a handful of key defensive categories. Eastern surrenders just 59.5 points per game (fifth in the LSC) and own the third-lowest defensive three-point percentage (27.4%) and fifth-lowest defensive field-goal percentage (37.1%). The Hounds are also an extremely capable rebounding team that allows them to limit second chance points from their opponents. Eastern averages 44.3 boards per game which ranks second amongst LSC competitors and own the third-highest rebounding margin at 9.1.

Sophomore Zamorye Cox has continued to be a defensive threat and ranks second in the LSC with an average of 2.6 steals per contest and has swiped a total of 31 on the year. The Greyhounds as a whole rank fifth in the league with an average of 9.17 steals per contest.

FOURTH QUARTER WARRIORS

The Greyhounds have got off to several slow starts in the early portion of the season but have shown a knack to finish games off strong during crunch time. Last week against West Texas A&M, the Hounds forced 19 turnovers and outscored the Lady Buffs 19-7 in the final quarter of play which gave the Green and Silver a legitimate chance to regain the lead.

The Hounds have played their best basketball in the final ten minutes of competition and have scored a total of 203 points while allowing just 154 in the fourth quarter through their first 12 games.

I’LL TAKE A DOUBLE-DOUBLE

Junior Alivia Lewis continues to improve off her impressive sophomore campaign and leads the team averaging a career-best 12.3 points and ranks third in the conference with 8.5 rebounds. Lewis is a double-double machine and has already recorded four this season, tied for the best mark in the league.

Lewis’s best game so far came on the road against Fort Lewis on Nov. 9, 2019 when she scored a career-high 20 points to go along with 12 rebounds and three blocks.

THE RISE OF DECKER

Sophomore Kamirah Decker has shown flashes all season of the potential she has displayed since arriving on campus last fall and finally seemed to put it all together in her last two starts against Oklahoma Christian and WT. During that two-game stretch, she totaled 23 points, 13 rebounds and five steals while going 9 for 13 from the floor for an efficient 69.2 percent shooting clip.

Decker alongside fellow post players Natalie Delonge and Jasmine Williams have provided valuable depth in the paint for Eastern New Mexico behind Lewis. DeLonge ranks third on the team with 9.8 points per contest and is second with nine total blocked shots. Williams has been invaluable on the glass and ranks 12th in the conference with 7.3 boards per game.

HOUNDS ON THE ROAD

The Hounds own a 3-2 record when playing outside of Portales and experienced mixed results on their most recent road trip on Dec. 12 and Dec 13 of 2019. Eastern began the week with a 64-61 victory over St. Mary’s in a tightly contested game that came down to the wire. The Greyhounds defense was able to force St. Mary’s into 13 turnovers while converting that into 16 points on the other side of the floor. Eastern relied on its height and athleticism the entire game, constantly feeding the ball into the post as the Hounds outscored their opponents 26-16 in the paint. The Green and Silver wrapped-up the weekend falling to a regionally ranked St. Edward’s team 78-70.