Tuesday, November 24, 2015
LAS VEGAS, N.M. — Balanced offense was key as the Eastern New Mexico University women's basketball team (3-2) opened a two-game trip against in-state rivals with an 80-69 victory over New Mexico Highlands (2-2), Tuesday night at the John A. Wilson Complex. Six Greyhounds registered at least eight points, and
Sarah Stinnett led the way with 12 points.
With the win, Eastern improved to 8-3 against New Mexico Highlands since the 2006-07 season. It also was the Hounds' fifth win over the Cowgirls in Las Vegas, in the last six road trips. Eastern matched a season high with 80 points.
After a Stinnett layup to open the scoring, Highlands cored the next four points to take a brief 4-2 lead. Moore hit a jumper to knot the score with 5:20 left in the opening quarter.
Miranda Moore's basket ignited a 22-4 Greyhound run over the ensuing 6:26 of play.
Mikaehla Connor capped the run with a jumper 1:06 into the second quarter, to give the Hounds a 24-8 advantage.
Eastern led by as many as 23 points in the opening half, 37-14, with 2:44 remaining, but the Cowgirls used a 10-3 run to close within 14 points in the waning minutes of the second quarter. With less than a minute until halftime,
Eliza Martinez snapped the Highlands run with a jumper, followed by a
Jasmine Hotchkins trey, to push the lead back to 43-24. Michelle Traynham hit a jumper with four seconds left to pull NMHU within 17 points at intermission.
The teams went back and forth early in the third quarter, with Moore scoring three straight points to lift ENMU to a 50-31 edge with 6:27 on the clock. The Cowgirls' Giulia Simioni scored seven straight points to ignite a 16-1 Highlands run over 4:22 of play to trim the Hounds' lead to 51-47 with 1:59 in the period. New Mexico Highlands would close within four points twice more, both times in the fourth quarter. Simioni drained a trey with 3:23 left in the game to pull NMHU within 72-68, but a
Brittany Gutierrez layup sparked an 8-1 run by Eastern to close the game.
ENMU led for 35:01 of play. The Greyhounds held a 40.6-33.8 percent edge in shooting percentage, which included a 45.5-37.5 percent advantage from three-point range. An 15-7advantage in points off turnovers was also critical to the Greyhounds' success. Stinnett poured in 12 points, grabbed nine rebounds, dished out five assists, and grabbed two steals.
Briana White chipped in 10 points, while
Kassandra Harris had 1-points and five boards.
Johna McClelland also had 10 points and five boards, while Gutierrez added eight points. Traynham and Simioni each had 22 and 20 points, respectively, for New Mexico Highlands.
The Eastern New Mexico University women's basketball team will continue its trip against in-state rivals on Monday, at Western New Mexico. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. MT.