College basketball: Women hope to continue upward trend

PORTALES — Eastern New Mexico’s women’s basketball team is getting an early dose of the friendly confines of Greyhound Arena, with its four-game LSC/RMAC Challenge tournament Friday and Saturday.

But it’s fair to say that even before the regular season starts this weekend, the revamped roster is already road tested.

Coming off of a fifth-place finish in the Lone Star Conference last season, there was plenty to replace on a roster that returns just four players.

“Obviously, we had a lot of kids we needed to replace,” coach Josh Prock said. “We graduated a very successful class. We needed to fill a lot of holes, and I felt like we did.”

There are plenty of new faces, and little left from the core that went 16-12 last year and 36-21 over the last two seasons. The Hounds return guard Dasia Johnson and post Shelby Jones, who started 27 and 25 games, respectively; sophomore post Alivia Lewis, who averaged 3.7 points in 12.1 minutes off the bench; and sophomore guard Jena Mehlbrech, who didn’t see any floor time in 2017-18.

But the new nuclear has already had some road time to bond. By the time the Greyhounds got back from Thursday’s exhibition against Division-I Arizona, they were packing for Sunday’s exhibition against Division-I New Mexico. And when they returned from that, they were packing for Fort Collins and Tuesday’s exhibition against Division-I Colorado State.

The Greyhounds filled out this year’s roster with players from across the spectrum — junior college, high school, Division-I and even their own campus.

Portales basketball fans will certainly recognize freshman guard Zamorye Cox from Portales, and people with an in-depth knowledge of New Mexico prep hoops may recall freshman post Kamirah Decker from Rio Rancho or freshman guard Myra McCaskill of Aztec. Other New Mexico products include junior college transfer post Jerraysha Smith of Alamogordo and sophomore Briana Rodriguez — a sophomore guard from Loving who was already attending ENMU last year.

Division-I transfers include the Iona pair of junior wing Tilasha Okey and senior post Treyanna Clay and sophomore guard Laura Rowe from Abilene Christian. Other juco transfers are junior guard Sydney Clark of Southern Idaho and sophomore guard Chelsea Hunter from South Plains, while two Texas freshmen are joining the Hounds in guard Natalie Slice of Tahoka and wing Asha Ross of Duncanville.

Prock admits he’s still figuring out where all of the pieces fit, but it’s clear the team will have to rebound better and take care of the ball better to be competitive in the Lone Star Conference.

“I think we’re going to be able to score, and we’ll be good defensively,” Prock said. “We just have to take care of the ball. Our goal is more to play inside-out this year.”

After this weekend’s Challenge, with New Mexico Highlands 6:30 p.m. Friday and Fort Lewis 7:30 p.m. Saturday, there are just three games before conference play begins Nov. 29 at home against Midwestern State.

The Greyhounds were picked fifth in the LSC preseason poll despite having so many roster questions. Prock thinks it’s a good sign of respect, but hardly something one can take stock in.

“Before I got here,” Prock said, “we were picked seventh, eighth. Now we’re top five, and that’s a testament to the young ladies of the program. At the same time, we don’t put much stock into the preseason rankings. We’re definitely a work in progress.

“I think the top teams are still strong, and the teams at the bottom got better. There’s obviously no night off; you’ve got to bring it every night.”