ENMU women know target on their backs

PORTALES — The whistle blows, the coach yells, “Bring it in.” The balls are racked and the team meets for one final prayer at center court of Greyhound Arena before packing up for Allen, Texas.

It’s not the final time on the Greyhound Arena court for this year’s Eastern New Mexico University women’s team, but it was the final act before heading into the Lone Star Conference tournament.

The No. 1 seeded Greyhounds will face No. 8 Texas A&M-Kingsville, who are coming off a Saturday win over Eastern entering the tournament. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday.

While ENMU (20-7, 16-4 LSC) is likely to receive a berth into the Division II regionals, only the tournanent champion receives an automatic bid.

Now LSC co-champions with Angelo State, the Greyhounds missed out on sole possession of the regular season crown — which they could have accomplished with a win in either of their last two games.

While coach Josh Prock thinks it didn’t end the way they wanted it to, it still turned out all right.

“It’s motivation, for sure,” Prock said. “How can it not be if you’re an athlete? It was a disappointing way to end the season, but at the same time when you look at the whole picture of what these girls did. I’m very proud of them.”

Point guard Jasmine Hotchkins echoed her coach’s remarks, adding, “I think every season teams are going to be tested and obviously this past week we’ve been tested. But the true test is how are we going to bounce back against that adversity.”

Perhaps the Greyhounds’ biggest hurdle to overcome is the stark difference in perspective. The Greyhounds were the lower seed in last year’s 1-8 game, and were picked to finish in a tie for eighth in the LSC preseason polls.

“Really, we have a target on our back,” said Mikaehla Connor. “Last year, playing as an eighth seed we were going for the top people. It’s basically flip-flopped this year, especially because they might think it’s a fluke because we placed so badly last year.”

When asked what entering as the top seed means for the team, Prock stressed that while it is a first for this nucleus and the first for the program in 24 years, it doesn’t have to be a burden.

“It brings a whole new element and that’s something this team and program is getting adjusted to,” said Prock. “But it’s a good target; you want a target on your back because it means you’ve been successful.

“I think there are still people out there that question if we are the best team, so we have to go out on the court and prove it.”

Nationally, ENMU hasn’t seen much recognition for its season, which included an undefeated run through the first half of LSC play. Angelo State has been ranked in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Div. II National Poll basically all season, while Eastern has yet to break out of the “Also receiving votes” category.

The Hounds have been ranked ahead of the Rambelles in the regional poll and have shown up in the Div. II Media Poll as high as 18th.

The reason for the turnaround this season? Defense, junior Daeshi McCants said.

“(We) just need to play as a team — these past two games we didn’t play good defense as a team. Playing (Kingsville) that just came to our home and beat us, it makes this first game one we have to win,” said McCants, who transferred to ENMU after a year at Division I Texas-El Paso.

“I think we are looking to throw some new wrinkles and things like that in to keep us going, but I think its also that these kids know that we have got to step up and make plays defensively,” said Prock. “One of the things we told our girls is a big part of our success has been our defense, so we need to get back to playing our style of defense.”