Hounds lock up share of LSC women's title

LAWTON, Okla. — The Eastern New Mexico University women's basketball team won at least a share of its first Lone Star Conference regular-season championship since 1992-93 on Saturday with an 81-72 win over Cameron.

The victory win marked just the third 20-win season in program history and its first since 1992-93, when it won its first LSC title.

The Greyhounds (20-5, 14-2 LSC) also claimed the No. 1 seed in next month’s LSC tournament in Allen, Texas.

“i’m very proud of this team and what we've been able to accomplish this season,” ENMU coach Josh Prock said. “We still have work to do, but the fight and resiliency these girls continue to show is amazing.

“Give Cameron a lot of credit. They have some kids that can play.”

The best Angelo State (20-4, 14-4) can do is beat ENMU Thursday and Western New Mexico Saturday to finish 16-4 in LSC play; the worst ENMU can finish is 16-4 with losses to Angelo State and then Texas A&M-Kingsville Saturday.

The conference settles ties first by head-to-head, then records against the other LSC teams in descending order of finish and finally via coin filp. The Greyhounds can do no worse than split with the Rambelles, and own the second tiebreaker with a better record against current No. 5 Tarleton State.

The teams face off 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Greyhound Arena. The host Hounds will look to clinch the top seed outright, while the Rambelles will look to hold off third-place West Texas A&M.

Eastern was led by Daeshi McCants with 20 points and eight rebounds. Johna McClelland added 16 points and eight caroms, while Mikaehla Connor and Brandi Gomez chipped in 14 and 11 points, respectively.

“Daeshi did a great job of getting us going offensively,” Prock said. “She did a little bit of everything for us tonight on both ends of the court. Johna came up with some huge rebounds for us on the defensive end. Brandi Gomez hit some key threes for us early on."

Up by as much as 14 points, ENMU jumped out early and prevented the Aggies (10-14, 8-10) from ever holding a lead. The Greyhounds held Cameron to 4-of-20 shooting from beyond the arc and just over 40 percent overall from the floor.