ENMU women fall to Javelinas

UPDATE: The ENMU women's game against Oklahoma Christian was postponed due to COVID-19 concerns. The men's game is still scheduled, but the game time has been moved up to 6 p.m. Saturday's doubleheader against Arkansas-Fort Smith remains on a 2 p.m./4 p.m. schedule.

KINGSVILLE, Texas — Texas A&M-Kingsville, coming off an upset of top-ranked and defending NCAA Division II champion Lubbock Christian two days earlier, used a 10-0 surge at the end of the first quarter and a 7-0 run to finish out the half and handed Eastern New Mexico University a 63-51 setback on Sunday in Lone Star Conference women’s basketball.

The Javelinas (8-4) opened conference play by rolling to a 59-42 win over LCU on Friday. Meantime, Sunday’s men’s game was postponed due to COVID-19 protocols for the Javelinas and is slated to be made up at a later date.

For the second game in a row, Kingsville never trailed. ENMU forged a 7-7 tie on freshman guard Bella Stone’s 3-point play with 5:19 left in the quarter before, leading 10-9, the Javs went on their first run to open at 11-point cushion after one.

ENMU (4-4, 0-2) was within six before Kingsville’s second scoring run made it 36-23 at halftime, keyed by a pair of 3-pointers from sophomore guard Kryslyn Jones.

Jones, who finished 4-of-5 from 3-point range and led four Javs in double digits with 17 points, hit another 3 late in the third segment to keep Kingsville in front by double digits (46-35). The Hounds cut into their deficit a bit early in the final stanza before the Javelinas pulled away.

Freshmen Mia Rivers and Devon Williams added 11 points each for Kingsville, while junior guard Brianna Pena had 10. Meantime, senior guard Iyanna McCurdy had her second consecutive 19-point, 11-rebound double-double to lead the Hounds, but no one else scored more than six points.

ENMU led in rebounds 38-30 and both teams tallied 22 field goals. But the Javs had nine 3-pointers while ENMU was 0-for-8 from distance.

Kingsville (8-4, 2-0) snapped a three-game losing streak against the Hounds, who still lead the all-time series 39-32. Meantime, the Javelinas matched their win total from a COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign and started 2-0 in league play in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1999-2000 and 2000-01.

ENMU men and women are back in action at Greyhound Arena this week, facing Oklahoma Christian on Thursday night and Arkansas-Fort Smith on Saturday in LSC play.