No. 7 Lady Buffs hand ENMU 67-45 loss

Staff report

CANYON, Texas — Suffice it to say, it was a long day for the Eastern New Mexico University women’s basketball team on Saturday.

The Greyhounds fell behind 7-0 in just over 2 1/2 minutes, and had only 16 points nearly midway through the third quarter. Their leading scorer for the game, senior guard Sarah Stinnett with 11 points, missed on 13 of her first 14 shots from the field.

They did, though, manage to play No. 7 West Texas A&M evenly through the second half — the Lady Buffs substituted liberally — in what ended up a 67-45 Lone Star Conference win for WT.

Senior guard Michaela Neuhaus tallied 15 points for the Lady Buffs (19-1, 8-1 LSC), including 4-of-6 from 3-point range. All but two of WT’s players scored, with junior guard Alie Decker going 3-for-4 from distance en route to 11 points off the bench and senior guard Sasha Watson adding 10 points and seven assists.

The win was the 26th in a row at home for the Lady Buffs.

Stinnett also had a team-high five rebounds for the Hounds (7-11, 2-6), who got seven or more points from only four players in posting their lowest scoring output of the season.

The first quarter was essentially the difference. WT tallied the final seven points of the stanza, capped by sophomore guard Hannah Alexander’s 3-point play, for a 23-8 lead and the margin was never under 13 points after that.

Leading 38-16 at the half, the Lady Buffs scored the first eight points of the third period and opened their biggest lead of the game at 50-18 on two free throws by junior center Maddison Wild with 4:41 left. The Hounds put together an 11-2 run over the final 2 1/2 minutes to close to 56-32 at quarter’s end, getting 3-pointers from junior guard Jasmine Hotchkins and senior guard Jordyn Cooper and a 3-point play from sophomore post Johna McClelland.

With mostly subs in the game, WT misfired on seven of its last eight attempts from the floor and scored only two points over the final four minutes. The Lady Buffs, who shot 57 percent in the first half, ended the game at 38 percent on 20-of-52.

ENMU finished at 33 percent (15-of-46), including 4-of-15 from 3-point distance.