MSU rides big second, third quarters

PORTALES - Midwestern State started a bit slowly, and finished somewhat slowly as well.

In the middle two quarters, though, the Mustangs were right on target.

MSU shot 60 percent from the field over the second and third stanzas, including five 3-pointers, and pulled away to a 79-70 Lone Star Conference women's victory over Eastern New Mexico University on Saturday at Greyhound Arena.

Sophomore guard Frances King came relatively close to a triple-double with a game-high 21 points, nine rebounds and eight assists as the Mustangs (11-9, 5-5 LSC) managed to stay ahead of the Hounds (8-9, 4-7) in conference standings.

"Normally it takes teams a little while to figure each other out," MSU coach Christopher Reay said. "Eastern's got a lot of good players, and we knew we were in for a dogfight."

The Mustangs put together back-to-back 25-point outputs in the second and third quarters. After trailing by five early in the second stanza, Midwestern rallied for a 40-35 lead at the intermission.

First-year ENMU women's coach Meghan De los Reyes pointed to the rebounding battle as a key. MSU held a 41-32 edge on the glass.

"That's one thing we needed to do better," she said. "King stepped up for them, and so did (junior forward Shanisay) Miller (15 points, nine boards). A lot of what they did (on offense) was in the last 10 seconds of the shot clock."

Midwestern State went 9-of-15 from the floor in each of the middle two segments, and carried a 65-55 lead into the final frame. The Hounds scored the first six points of the period on 3-point plays by sophomore Asha Ross and McCurdy, but they got no closer.

Reay said his team, coming off a 75-64 loss at nationally-ranked Lubbock Christian on Thursday, had a fairly good game.

"We have stuff to work on, but overall I thought we played pretty well," he said.

Senior guard Morgan Lenahan added 12 points for the Mustangs. Meantime, senior guard Iyanna McCurdy's streak of three consecutive double-doubles came to an end for ENMU, but she still finished with 24 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals while playing nearly 36 minutes.

Meantime, sophomore Asha Ross scored a personal-best 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting off the bench, and added five rebounds in 17 minutes.

"Iyanna was getting us going," De los Reyes said. "She was getting to the basket, and she did a good job of sparking us.

"Asha Ross just did a really good job. She just did a really good job of finishing."

Following a Monday makeup against Oklahoma Christian at Greyhound Arena, ENMU returns to the road for games at Cameron on Thursday and at West Texas A&M on Saturday.