ENMU women dealt 'foul' defeat

PORTALES — Lubbock Christian's 42 free-throw attempts proved to be too much for the Eastern New Mexico University women's basketball team to overcome in a 64-55 defeat on Saturday.

The Chaps made 34-of-42 free throws (81 percent) and went to the stripe 28 times after halftime.

"It was a little crazy. Our girls did a good job of being aggressive, and I thought we got some things that didn't go our way," Greyhounds coach Josh Prock said of the 42-16 foul-shot disparity.

"That was definitely frustrating, but I thought our girls fought through things, and I was proud of their effort. We out-rebounded (Lubbock Christian) by eight (45-37), and shot almost 90 percent at the foul line. I thought we executed well, some of the shots just didn't drop for us."

In fact, Chaps (12-1) coach Steve Gomez said after the game that he looked down at the scorebook and was in awe of how many attempts his team had for the day. According to Gomez, games were expected to get called tighter this year, from what officials had told him prior to the season.

"Maybe there shoulda been more (free throws for Eastern), as well," Gomez said. "I never felt like we were getting mugged everywhere - that's just a lot of free throw shots in a game. But supposedly this year, they're talking about calling things tighter. The hard thing for any team - (Eastern), our team - is to know night to night what's it gonna be like? I'm sure for (ENMU) it's a frustrating deal, but they did a good job of being aggressive on the boards, they hammered us on the boards. They did a really good job of being aggressive, and at times, we didn't react as well as we needed to. They may be a 5-6 team, but they can beat some quality teams."

The Hounds (5-6) trailed by 13 points at halftime, but stormed out of the locker room on a 5-0 run, all thanks to Mikaehla Connor. After falling back down to 41-32, Kaylee Edgemon swished a pair of back-to-back 3-pointers, cutting the deficit to just three.

The Greyhounds managed to get back within three again in the middle stages of the fourth quarter, but then shot-after-shot continued to not fall for them, and eventually, their aggressive nature led to more free-throw opportunities for the Chaps down the stretch, as Lubbock Christian sunk 9-of-11 free throws in the final 5:29 of the game.

"We wanted to pick up the tempo," Prock said of his team's second-half resurgence. "Just try to get the tempo going a little more in our favor. We thought we had good athletes, and I was proud of the girls and some of the things they did today. But all in all, it's a great game to knock off the rust and get us going for a big, huge game on Tuesday."

As for the first half, Eastern pulled ahead, 8-7, with 6:43 to play in the first period. However, that's when the Chaps started to take control of the game, as they went on a 26-12 run to end the half. Consecutive treys by Tess Bruffey and Delaney Gaddis gave the Chaps the lead for good in the late stages of the first quarter.

"To start the game, (Eastern pressed us) a few times, and we were fortunate to break the pressure. Then they got out of it for awhile (to close out the half)," Gomez explained. "Then they came back with a little hotter aggression and put us on our heels some. Our girls, we gotta learn to handle that. There's been times this year that has hurt us - full-court pressure and trapping. Then there's times we handle it. We just need to get consistently good against stuff like that."

Gomez went on to say that his Chaps, currently ranked No. 4 in the country and now on a six-game winning streak, need to just take things one day at a time and not get caught up in records and points.

As for the Greyhounds, Saturday marked their first game in two full weeks, and Prock said that his girls have just been trying to stay fresh and consistent in practice every day. Starting with Saturday's game, the Hounds will have a stretch of three games in six days, next hosting Western New Mexico on Tuesday evening (5:30 p.m.).

"I haven't had a chance to watch a ton on them. But, I do know they're very well-coached," Prock said. "Last year, they did a lot of things defensively - try to do some man, some zone. They did some ball screens offensively, so I'm sure they're gonna be similar to last year. But this year, they got better players."