PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico women's basketball team is prepared to get its regular season underway as the Hounds are hosting the Lone Star/Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Challenge on Friday and Saturday inside Greyhound Arena.

In the event sponsored by McDonald's and J.P. Stone Community Bank, the Greyhounds will open the season against New Mexico Highlands at 6:30 p.m. on Friday before challenging Fort Lewis at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Eastern finished its last of three exhibition contests with a 72-46 loss at Colorado State on Tuesday. The Hounds provided a strong challenge to the Rams, as ENMU took a 27-26 lead into the halftime locker room after a Zamorye Cox layup put the Hounds up with 20 seconds left in the first half.

Senior forward Treyanna Clay led the Greyhounds with 11 points on 2-of-4 shooting from the field and knocked down 7-of-11 from the charity stripe. Sophomore guard Laura Rowe pitched in eight points on 3-of-6 from the floor and 2-of-5 from the three-point arc while junior guard Tilasha Okey chipped in six points and ripped down five rebounds.

Leading the rebounding efforts for Eastern was senior forward Shelby Jones with nine boards, five of which were offensive and Alivia Lewis recorded seven rebounds while chipping in a team-high two blocked shots. Senior guard Dasia Johnson led the passing efforts with three assists to go with five points.
 
EVENT SCHEDULE
Eastern New Mexico, Western New Mexico, New Mexico Highlands, and Fort Lewis will be the four teams playing in four games throughout this weekend. On Friday, Fort Lewis and Western New Mexico will open the tournament with a 4:30 p.m. tip before Eastern takes on New Mexico Highlands immediately following. The Saturday slate will start with New Mexico Highlands taking on Western New Mexico at 5:30 p.m. before the Greyhounds take on Fort Lewis to close out the tourney.
 
SCOUTING THE COWGIRLS
New Mexico Highlands will be opening its 2018-19 campaign at The Challenge. The Cowgirls enter the tourney picked 16^th in the RMAC Preseason Poll after finishing with a 4-22 record last season and 2-19 in conference play.
NMHU returns their leading scorer and rebounder in junior forward Ari Baca from the 2017-18 season. Baca averaged 11.6 points per game and 4.8 rebounds per game for the Cowgirls last season. The Cowgirls also return one of their top performers from a year ago in junior guard Brianna Stewart, who finished second on the team with 214 points (8.6 points per game) and tied for the most free throw attempts with 103 last year, converting on 79 (77-percent) of those attempts.
 
HISTORY WITH THE COWGIRLS
In the series that dates back to 1975, the Greyhounds lead the all-time series with a 39-10 record. The Hounds have won the last three meetings, including a 53-34 victory in last year's contest in Las Vegas, N.M. In that meeting, Jones scored 10 points on 4-of-7 from the field and knocked down a pair of free throws.

The last time the two teams met in Portales was on Nov. 22, 2016 as Eastern handed the Cowgirls in a 75-48 defeat. The Hounds got off to a fast start, outscoring Highlands by a 22-7 margin in the opening quarter.
 
SCOUTING THE SKYHAWKS
Fort Lewis will open its 2018-19 campaign at the LSC/RMAC Challenge as well and is tabbed to finish eighth in the RMAC this season.

The Skyhawks are coming off a solid 2017-18 season, going 20-9 overall and 14-8 in RMAC play. However, FLC also enters the season after losing their top two scorers from last year's squad in All-RMAC First Teamer's Vivian Gray and Astrea Reed.
Junior guard Kayla Herrera is Fort Lewis' top returner after scoring 9.4 points per game, which was good for third on the team while also dishing out a team-high 80 assists and a recording a team-leading 53 steals while averaging the third-most rebounds on the squad with 4.8 per contest.

FLC returns just two of their regular starters from last season with Herrera and senior forward Kelsey Wainwright, who averaged 4.2 points and 3.1 rebounds in 16.3 minutes per game.
 
HISTORY WITH THE SKYHAWKS
The Hounds lead the all-time series 14-12 dating back to its origins in 1982. However, Eastern will be looking to snap a nine-game losing streak to the Skyhawks. Despite being in the midst of a tough losing streak to Fort Lewis, the Hounds have been competitive against the Skyhawks as three of the last four meetings have been decided by four points or less.

In their last meeting on Nov. 11, 2017 in Durango, Colo., the Hounds hung with the Skyhawks early, trailing by only two after the first quarter and by six at the half. However, FLC pulled away with an offensive explosion in the third quarter to eventually come away with a 71-54 win. Jones led all Greyhound scorers with nine points, finishing just a point shy of a double-double with 12 rebounds.

The last time the two teams met in Portales, ENMU rallied from an 11-point deficit with 1:09 to go in the fourth quarter with a 9-1 run to cut the deficit to just three at 72-69 with 20 seconds left in the game. However, the Skyhawks made a free throw to make it a two-possession game and the Hounds comeback efforts fell just short in the 73-69 loss.
 
CLAY-MORE
Through their three exhibition games, the Hounds have been getting more out of Clay, their senior transfer from Iona. After notching just two points in each the Arizona and New Mexico games, Clay exploded for 11 points and made seven free throws on her 11 trips to the charity stripe against Colorado State. Last season for the Gaels, Clay was the team's most prominent free throw shooter, attempting 99 for the season while converting a team-leading 66 attempts.
 
EVERYTHING IS OKEY-DOKEY
Clay isn't the only Iona transfer who paid big dividends for the Hounds during exhibition play. Okey, the junior guard from Phoenix, Ariz. has been one of the leading scorers for ENMU during the exhibition schedule, averaging 5.7 points per game with a game-high eight points against New Mexico.
 
SENIOR CONTRIBUTIONS
During the three-game exhibition schedule, the Hounds have been getting strong contributions from their senior leaders. Johnson, in her third year as the starting point guard, was one of the leading scorers with 17 points, averaging 5.7 points per game and has dished out a team-high four assists. Jones, the senior forward from Clovis, N.M. has been a force on the glass for the Greyhounds, grabbing 20 rebounds in the three contests. She was the leading rebounder in every exhibition game, recording a game-high nine boards against the Rams.
 
SHARPER SHOOTING
The Greyhounds will be looking to improve their shooting performances in this weekend's tournament after struggling from the field in all three exhibition games. ENMU was just 20-percent from the floor against Arizona and 16-percent from three, 26-percent from the field and 19-percent from three against New Mexico, and 23-percent from the floor as well as 13-percent from three against Colorado State. Despite the cold shooting performances, the Hounds made tremendous strides taking care of the basketball in their last game against the Rams. After turning the ball over 22 times against the Wildcats and 25 times against the Lobos, Eastern turned the ball over on just 13 occasions against Colorado State.