Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
ODESSA, Texas — Senior Daeshi McCants' career day helped lift the Greyhound women past UT-Permian Basin, 68-65, in Saturday's Lone Star Conference basketball matchup. McCants had 19 of the Hounds' 51 rebounds, to go along with 20 points — both of which are career highs for her.
Eastern New Mexico's 54-46 lead with 7:49 to go in the game would quickly get erased by UTPB (6-14, 4-8 LSC). The Falcons went on a 9-0 run, after a jumper from Kristal Reid, a 3 from Khali Pippins-Tyron and a layup from Victoria Lopez pulled Permian Basin ahead by one.
Brandi Gomez would soon answer with a 3 of her own to put ENMU (11-8, 7-5) back in the lead, with 4:42 to play. A pair of 3-point plays, including a basket-and-1, from Pippins-Tyron in the final 16 seconds closed the Eastern lead to 66-65.
Gomez would then go to the stripe and hit both of her free throws, extending the Greyhound lead to three, with just five seconds to play. Lopez tried to hit a jumper before the clock expired, but it was Gomez who swooped in and made the game-winning block.
Besides McCants, who led the team in scoring, rebounding, assists and blocks, Gomez stepped up to contribute 17 points on 6-of-6 free throw shooting. As for the Falcons, Pippins-Tyron led all scorers with 23 points, while Lopez added 14. Pippins-Tyron and Sierra LaGrande combined to go 7-for-15 from downtown, while the rest of the team went just 1-for-9.
Eastern carried a 17-13 lead into the second period, but Permian responded by outscoring the Greyhounds, 22-13, in the second quarter. UTPB shot 7-for-13 (53.8 percent) in the quarter, but went just 15-for-47 (31.5 percent) in the other three quarters combined.
The Hounds would go onto to outscore the Falcons in the third quarter by the identical first quarter score of 17-12. This gave ENMU a one-point lead heading into the final period, before Edgemon and Sarina Johnson led an 8-0 run to begin the period.
The Greyhounds outrebounded the Falcons, 51-30, and also outscored them in bench points, 36-17. In fact, Eastern converted 24 offensive rebounds into 28 second chance points for the afternoon.
For ENMU, the win is its eighth in the last 11 games, and helps avenge an early-season 68-63 loss to the Falcons. Since that Nov. 30 game, Eastern is 8-5 overall, while UTPB is just 4-9.
The Greyhounds will head back home next week, first hosting Tarleton State on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. The Hounds won their previous matchup at Tarleton back on Dec. 9, 78-72 in overtime.
