Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Greyhound senior guard Jasmine Hotchkins directs traffic in the fourth quarter of Thursday's Lone Star Conference game against Texas A&M-Kingsville. Hotchkins scored seven points in the 67-61 overtime win.
PORTALES — What started as a celebration of local elementary and middle school students at Greyhound Arena on Thursday morning ended in an even bigger celebration two hours later, as the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds notched a 67-61 overtime win over Texas A&M-Kingsville in a Lone Star Conference women's basketball matchup.
"There wasn't honestly a lot of adjustments. We just told our girls that we had to get stops," Greyhounds coach Josh Prock said of the overtime session. "(Kingsville's) Angelica Wilson, was playing really well today, and she has all year; she's a tough matchup. But I thought Daeshi (McCants) and those girls did a pretty good job in overtime, and we made some big baskets, made some big free throws and were able to win the game."
After holding off the Javelinas in the final seconds of the fourth quarter, the Greyhounds (9-7, 5-4 LSC) came into overtime lacking momentum, after a rough second half. However, Eastern quickly regained control of the game, after layups from McCants and Mikaehla Connor put ENMU ahead by three.
McCants and Dasia Johnson would soon combine for four-consecutive made free throws, extending the Greyhound lead to 63-58 with 46 seconds to play. That ultimately proved to be the difference for Eastern, as it held Kingsville (4-13, 1-8) to 1-for-8 (12.5 percent) from the field in the extra session.
"(ENMU) stepped up and made some plays and we didn't," Javelinas coach Wade Scott explained. "Not much you can say about it. (We made) free throws, yeah, but I don't really have an explanation. We missed a couple layups, we got some deep penetration and missed a layup or two. They're a good team — they didn't buckle, you gotta give them some credit."
Thursday marked "Kids Day" during Eastern's men's/women's doubleheader, as the University hosted well-over 1,000 elementary and middle school students from area schools. The atmosphere was electric even before tip-off, as the fans were treated to a "Star Spangled Banner" rendition by the Melrose Elementary School Choir, led by Prock's wife, Angie.
"It's amazing. This is our third year in a row to do this, we cannot thank the community of Portales, Floyd, Melrose, Clovis Christian, Texico, etc. enough," Josh Prock said. "All these people that come out, all the teachers, the superintendents - we thank our administration, our professors for allowing this stuff to happen. It's a fun day and big day for everybody."
The Greyhounds fed off of that energy early, regaining the lead late in the first quarter with a Brandi Gomez dish to Kaylee Edgemon, plus, a Gomez 3-pointer off of a Javelina miss on the next possession, to carry a 19-15 lead into the second quarter.
Eastern then went on a 10-0 run in the second quarter to extend its lead to nine, but Kingsville managed to put together a few baskets late to cut the deficit to 31-27 at the half.
While the Hounds played a strong first half, the second half proved to be anything but.
Kingsville opened up the third quarter on a 7-0 run to take a three-point lead, before Eastern stole it right back. The two sides would continue to trade one-point leads — or remain tied — throughout the rest of the half.
A McCants layup in the paint gave ENMU a 55-53 lead with 1:12 to play. Kingsville finally countered with a Wilson lay-in, as just 11 seconds remained in regulation. Johnson would turn it over on Eastern's next possession, allowing the Javelinas to call a timeout with 3.1 seconds left.
On the inbound at Eastern's end of the court, however, Kingsville could not find an open player within 20 feet of the basket, and ultimately dribbled around for the remaining seconds without getting a shot off, and in the process, squandered an opportunity to win the game in regulation, which proved costly.
" We were trying to isolate our post kid, and that was probably more my fault than the kids — I changed the play right at the end," Scott explained. "I should have just let them play it out. That was more my fault than theirs."
The Hounds have now won six of eight, and carry plenty of momentum going into Saturday's matchup with Angelo State. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.
"They're tough," Prock said of the Rams. "Their post kids are really good, and they got guards that are really quick. It's gonna be a tough matchup, and we're gonna have to be ready to play on Saturday."
