Comeback falls just short for ENMU women

PORTALES — Late-game fireworks — in more ways than one — weren't enough to save the Eastern New Mexico women against Angelo State in Saturday's Lone Star Conference basketball tussle at Greyhound Arena.

Eastern nearly erased a 26-point deficit, but came up just shy in the end as a Kaylee Edgemon 3-pointer rimmed out at the buzzer to preserve a 62-59 Angelo State victory.

"Our kids just continued to fight. They didn't stop fighting, and they continued to go, go, go," Greyhounds coach Josh Prock said. "I was proud of their effort in the second half, we fought through a lot of adversity and to be able to come back from that was a tremendous effort by our ladies."

ENMU (9-8, 5-5 LSC) trailed Angelo State 48-22, with 4:45 to play in the third quarter. The Hounds looked dead in the water for most of the afternoon — including a first half with 10 ENMU turnovers and a 12-0 Rambelle advantage in points off miscues.

However, the Greyhounds magically found life midway through the third, as they began an unprecedented 20-0 run, which lasted all the way into the early stages of the fourth quarter. Brandi Gomez caught fire, as she knocked down back to back 3's to cut the deficit to 11.

She then drilled another trey in the early going of the fourth quarter, as she got her Hounds within six, 48-42, to complete the 20-0 run.

Angelo State (12-4, 7-3) answered with buckets from Marquita Daniels and Ekiya Gray, to go back ahead by double-digits.

But, Gomez still had some magic left in her, as a pull-up triple cut the Rambelle lead down to five. Daniels soon responded with a pull up jumper of her own to give ASU a 60-54 lead with 42.0 seconds to play.

Gomez who nailed another trey with an ASU defender in her face, cutting the deficit to 60-57 with 22.5 to play. After Gray split her free throws, Gomez' off-balanced 3-point heave with less than 10 seconds left to play landed out of bounds, forcing the Greyhounds to foul.

After ASU split its free throws, the Hounds responded with a Dasia Johnson turnover with 1.6 seconds left - and all Angelo had to do was inbound the ball and run off the final 1.2 seconds.

But not so fast, my friend. As Daniels waited for the inbound pass, Gomez shoved her, which led to Daniels throwing a punch, followed by Gomez, and vice versa. The two were quickly separated, and the officials took some time to get everything straightened out.

The final ruling was a technical for each player, but an ejection for Daniels and two free throws and possession for the Hounds.

After Gomez made the pair, Edgemon made her way around the right side and got an open look off the inbounds, but the ball rimmed out.

"You got to give it to Eastern, they did a really good job, defensively. Unfortunately, the ball wasn't falling in the hole for us, like it had in the first half," Rambelles coach Renae Shippy explained.

Regarding the scuffle, Shippy said,"No explanation, both teams were at fault. That kind of stuff can't happen in this game - it takes away from the game and we're gonna handle our business, and I know that Eastern will handle theirs."

Even without the skirmish, Daniels and Gomez would have been the story, while Gomez hit five 3-pointers on her career-high 24-point day.

The Greyhounds will close out the January with a pair of road games against West Texas A&M and UT-Permian Basin, starting next Thursday. For Prock, both games will be tough tasks, as the Hounds already lost to both of them at Greyhound Arena earlier this season.

"Both are really good teams and they're gonna be difficult games," Prock said. "They both beat us the first time, so we're gonna have to step up and play well."