Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
PORTALES — Eastern New Mexico University’s women’s basketball team will have to wait a little bit longer to be alone at the top.
Angelo State, second place in the Lone Star Conference behind the Greyhounds, whittled away after falling behind by nine in the first quarter and led for the final 18:35 in an 89-82 victory Thursday night at Greyhound Arena.
Jasmine Prophet’s 23-point, 10-rebound led four in double figures for the Rambelles (21-4), who led by as many as 16 in the second half in a game where playoff ramifications mattered little.
The Greyhounds (20-6, 16-3), who had won four in a row and six of seven entering Thursday’s game, missed a chance to claim sole possession of the LSC’s regular season title. However, ENMU had wrapped up the No. 1 seed via tiebreaker last Saturday, and found out Thursday night they’d be playing two straight against Texas A&M-Kingsville.
The teams will play 3 p.m. Saturday in Eastern’s home finale, then 5 p.m. (MST) Thursday in Allen, Texas, to open the LSC tournament.
The Javelinas (12-13, 7-12) needed to win their final two games to leapfrog Cameron for the No. 7 seed via tiebreaker, but instead suffered a 75-67 loss Thursday at Western New Mexico (0-18 LSC entering Thursday).
The host Greyhounds had the start they wanted, with the hot-shooting Jasmine Hotchkins hitting four shots — three of them 3s — in the first five minutes to stake ENMU out to a 16-8 advantage.
Hotchkins led three Hounds in double figures with 16 points, while Daeshi McCants posted a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Eastern also got 10 from Sarina Johnson and nine each from Brandi Gomez, Kassandra Harris and Dasia Johnson.
The lead never swung in the first half, but the Rambelles took their first lead just 20 seconds into the third when Christina Robinson hit 2-of-3 free throws. The Greyhounds regained the lead two possessions later on a McCants tip-in, but Angelo never looked back after Keanna Kelly hit a pair at the line for a 49-48 advantage.
Those free throws kickstarted an 8-0 run for the Rambelles, who got 16 points, five assists and six rebounds from Robinson. Lexi Murphy added 10 points and seven boards for Angelo State, which closes out the regular season Saturday at Western New Mexico.
The Greyhounds fought back to cut it to single digits with 1:23 left, but could only get within five on an academic 3-pointer by Hotchkins with three seconds left.
Dorsey, the LSC’s leading scorer, notched career points 951-952 on a pair of free throws to close the game out.
