Eastern New Mexico Women's Basketball | 02.06.16 | Story by David Norton | Photo by Kait Roberts
SAN ANGELO, TEXAS — The Eastern New Mexico women's basketball team found themselves down by 10 in the opening minutes of their contest against Angelo State Saturday, a deficit that would prove too much to overcome in the 67-53 loss for the Greyhounds.
Kassandra Harris led the Hounds (8-12, 3-7 LSC) with 14 points. While the junior transfer only went 3-15 from the field, she was 8-13 from the free throw line and also grabbed eight rebounds. The Rambelles (15-5, 8-2 LSC) were led by Taylor Dorsey with 18 points and eight rebounds.
Eliza Martinez had quite an afternoon on the defensive end, grabbing eight total rebounds and recording four blocks for her second consecutive contest. Jordyn Cooper and Sarah Stinnett chipped in with eight and seven points, respectively.
Despite the final score, Eastern played Angelo close in each quarter, but the Rams would seemingly always extend their lead in the opening minutes of each quarter. ENMU head coach Josh Prock said, "They always outscored us in the beginning of the quarter and while we did a good job of fighting back it was just never quite enough."
In the four quarters the Hounds were outscored by four points, four points, four points and finally two points, reinforcing coach Prock's declaration. Another problem for Eastern came on the glass and while they were only outrebounded by a total of six boards, all six came by way of Rambelle offensive rebounds, leading to a 26-13 difference in second chance points.
Neither team shot particularly well, with ENMU hitting only 32 percent from the floor and 18 percent from beyond the arc (the Rambelles were no better, hitting 32 percent of their field goals and only 17 percent of their 3-pointers). The Hounds can take solace in the fact that they held Angelo to only 67 points, with the Rambelles scoring 112 points in their previous game and averaging 84 points per game on the season.
"We've played defense well enough to win every game this season," said Prock. "We are just having trouble putting the ball in the hole and it's costing us."
The women's team will head back to Portales before starting their five day road trip with a stop in Denton, Texas, to take on Texas Woman's. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. (MT) on Tuesday, Feb. 9. Following the matchup with the Pioneers the Hounds will travel to Lawton, Okla., where they will matchup with Cameron University on Thursday.