Skyhawks spoil Zia rally

Eastern New Mexico University clawed its way back from a 10-point second half deficit, but couldn’t complete the comeback as Fort Lewis escaped with a 59-56 win Tuesday night at Greyhound Arena.

It is the Zias’ third loss by three points or less this season.

Junior point guard Sarah Stinnett believes the Zias (13) will start winning close games once they get their chemistry down.

“We’re still a new team, so it’s hard to get everything to click for a whole game,” said Stinnett, who led the Zias with 17 points and eight rebounds. “In our other close losses, we had the lead and we just can’t seem to get the chemistry for a whole game yet.

link Staff photo: Joshua Lucero

Zia senior Jasmine Johnson gets the layup for two of her 11 points during Tuesday’s contest at Greyhound Arena.

Kylie Santos’ 3-pointer from the right corner proved to be the game-winner.

Down 50-40 with seven minutes to go, the Zias (1-3) rallied behind Stinnett and senior forward Jasmine Johnson to tie the game at 56 with just under two minutes to go.

Santos used a screen off an inbounds play to put the Skyhawks (3-1) up 59-56 with 42 seconds to go.

“We had a defensive breakdown on that play, but we’ll get that fixed,” ENMU coacj Josh Prock said.

The Zias had chances to tie the game, but an errant pass got behind Johnson and went out of bounds. After a foul, Skylyn Webb missed the front end of a one-and-one and the Zais secured the rebound.

After a timeout, the Zias got an open at a 3-pointer Tori Tucker, but the shot bounced off he rim and the Skyhawks secured the rebound and the win.

Prock said his team’s 22 turnovers were too many to overcome.

“We came out in the second half a little flat,” Prock said. “But it was nice to see the girls figure out a way to come back, and we had the ball with a chance to take the lead. We just didn’t handle their pressure very well and we need to do a better job with that.”

The Zias led 26-23 at the half, but the Skyhawks began the second half on a 14-2 run as post Mary Brinton scored nine points in the first three minutes in the half.

Brinton finished with a game-high 19 points.

Skyhawks coach Jason Flores was proud that his frontcourt took control of the game.

“Our strength right now is our post players,” Skyhawks coach Jason Flores said. “We got away from that later in the half and they came back, so we’ll take that lesson, but Brinton is a great post player and it was definitely a point of emphasis to get her the ball in the second half.”

Zias guard Tori Tucker, who leads the team with 16.8 points per game, was held to just six points on five shots as the Skyhawks gave her little rooom to operate.

“They did a really good job of keeping the ball away from her,” Prock said.

The Zias will travel to Lubbock for their next game against Texas-Permian Basin (3-0) on Friday.