CANYON, Texas - The Eastern New Mexico women's basketball team battled hard and displayed fantastic effort but could not get enough shots to fall as it dropped its Lone Star Conference opener 61-47 to West Texas A&M Saturday afternoon.
 
Sophomore point guard Zamorye Cox turned in her best performance of the season as she led the Hounds in almost every major category, posting 15 points, six rebounds, six assists and four steals. Team points leader Natalie DeLonge finished as the second leading scorer for the Greyhounds with eight points and also grabbed four rebounds, swiped a pair of steals and dished out an assist.
 
Eastern's rebound effort kept the Hounds competitive for most of the game especially on the offensive end with 13 of the team's 33 rebounds coming on that side of the floor. Senior post player Jasmine Williams and junior guard Chelsea Hunter corralled three offensive boards apiece which was tied for a game-high.
 
ENMU failed to take a lead at any point in the game and finished the first quarter shooting five of 15 from the floor and missing all five of its three-point attempts as WT jumped out to a 16-12 lead in the first ten minutes. The Hounds offense started to heat up in the second quarter as they connected on 50 percent of their field goal attempts and also knocked down four shots from beyond the arch. The Lady Buffs played suffocating defense all game long and forced the Hounds to commit ten first half turnover which WT converted into 11 points, taking a 36-28 advantage into the locker room.
 
The Buffs would extend their lead to 11 points coming out of the halftime break as the two squads would exchange buckets for the remainder of the third quarter as the home team held a 38-49 advantage entering the final quarter of play. The Hounds showed their resilience, mounting a 7-2 run to trim the deficit to six with 7:13 remaining in the game. WT would limit ENMU to just a single basket in the final minutes of the contest as the Hounds shots consistently found the rim but would rattle out at the last second as the Buffs held on for the win.
 
The Hounds return to Canyon, Texas next week as they will look for more favorable results when they compete in the WT Pak-A-Sak Thanksgiving Classic. The Green and Silver take the court against CSU-Pueblo on Friday at 11 a.m. before facing Adams State the following day at the same time. The Greyhounds are 6-0 in games against Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opponents the past two seasons.