Eastern women get 10th LSC victory

PORTALES - Eastern New Mexico University's women's basketball team is driving toward the season's finish line at a point where there's little room for detours.

Thursday at Greyhound Stadium, Eastern cruised to its 10th Lone Star Conference win of the season, accelerating in the second quarter after a sluggish start to leave UT Permian Basin far back in the rear-view mirror - 76-57 by game's end.

As of Thursday, there were exactly four weeks before the Greyhounds would be playing in Frisco, Texas, if they are indeed LSC tournament-bound. At the one-month-to-go milepost, the Hounds were playing fairly solid basketball and feeling good about themselves.

"I'm very happy with where we are for sure," ENMU head coach Josh Prock said after Thursday's game. "We're getting better, no doubt."

Thursday's victory in particular seemed a solid effort.

"I was pretty pleased overall, defensively. I thought we played defense pretty well," Prock said. "I thought we got rolling in transition and took advantage of some of that. So I was proud of our kids and how we got out in transition and how we guarded after that first five minutes."

During those minutes it was anyone's game. Eastern did build a slight lead, 14-11, by the first quarter's end and was still up by only a modest 21-15 count well into the second.

"Honestly, I think it was just an energy thing," Greyhounds sophomore post Alivia Lewis said after notching a game-high nine #. "We came out really slow in the first half, weren't taking care of the ball, weren't really running our offense."

UTPB had chances to narrow its deficit even more, but a steal by Alexandrea Washington created a possession that yielded no points. After Permian Basin reclaimed possession on a defensive rebound, a Nyachristmas Puok shot from the top of the key wouldn't go.

UTPB got the ball back again on a defensive board, but a rightside trey attempt by 2018 Clovis High graduate Teya Morris spun out.

Finally with 2:22 left in the half, senior post Treyanna Clay ended Eastern's drought by hitting a pair of foul shots to make it 23-15. On UTPB's ensuing possession, Clay collected a steal then fed Lewis for a layup that gave the Hounds a 10-point lead.

By the 1:19 mark of the second quarter, however, the Falcons had closed to within six again, thanks to a pull-up jumper by Sarah Bersang and two free throws from Khali Pippins-Tryon that concluded a possession she had created with a steal.

UTPB again got the ball back with a defensive rebound and again couldn't score. And on Eastern's next possession, Tilasha Okey buried a trey from the left side to give the Hounds a 28-19 advantage.

Just before the buzzer, Eastern's Jena Mehlbrech canned a three from the right elbow to make it a 31-19 game at halftime.

UTPB crept to within 31-22 on a Puok trey early in the third quarter, but that was the closest the Falcons would come in the second half. Lewis knocked down a jumper less than a minute into the third, handing her team an 11-point lead, and less than a minute after that, she put in a reverse layup to make it 35-22.

The game was a double-digit affair for most of the its remainder, except when Morris hit a three from the left corner and reduced Permian Basin's deficit to 42-33 with 4:21 left in the third quarter.

It took nearly two minutes for either team to score again, but finally with 2:50 remaining in the third, Lewis drove for another layup to give Eastern a 44-33 edge. The Greyhounds' lead was never single digits again.

Soon, Eastern had secured another conference win. But according to Prock, there was still lots of work to do in a short time.

"We've still got to get better defensively," he said. "Offensively, we've got to get better executing. Too many turnovers tonight. We had 22 turnovers, that's too many."