Lady Chaps outlast ENMU

PORTALES – Eastern New Mexico University's women nearly pulled off an impressive weekend home sweep over two of the Lone Star Conference's better teams.

They weren't quite able to do it, following up Thursday's 68-62 win over West Texas A&M with a narrow 66-61 setback against Lubbock Christian on Saturday at Greyhound Arena.

Still, the Greyhounds (12-11, 9-9 LSC) hold down the No. 7 spot in the upcoming LSC tournament, and if they can take care of business over the final two weeks they should be comfortably in the eight-team event.

Second-year ENMU women's coach Meghan De los Reyes said her contingent has nothing to hang its collective head about.

"I thought we played really well," De los Reyes said. "We forced a team that never turns the ball over to turn it over 19 times."

LCU (18-8, 13-5), currently second in the West Division and third in the overall standings, made just enough plays at the end of the day to walk out with a win.

Veteran Lady Chaps coach Steve Gomez was a relieved man afterward.

"They're really good," he said of the Hounds. "We knew we were going to have to play our best. We turned the ball over a little too much, but we rebounded better than we have."

Indeed, the Lady Chaps posted a 46-30 domination of the LSC's second-best rebounding team. They also shot better from the floor (42 percent to 37) and the foul line (14-of-18 to 8-of-12).

The Hounds led only once, at 5-4 on a 3-pointer by junior guard Ashley Shipley, but they kept LCU in their sights throughout. There were six ties in the contest, all coming in the first half, but the Lady Chaps never led by more than eight points.

"We're just doing a really good job on defense," De los Reyes said. "There were times where we got stagnant on offense, but we made some really good adjustments at halftime."

Sophomore forward Grace Foster, fourth in the LSC in scoring and second in rebounding, paced the Lady Chaps with 17 points and seven caroms. Junior guards Maci Maddox and Audrey Robertson added 14 and 10 points, respectively, and Robertson posted a game-high five assists.

Shipley finished with three 3s and 15 points for the Hounds. Senior forward Edecia Beck added 14 points and junior forward Deja Adrian scored 11, while reserve freshman forward KiKi Roberts collected a game-high nine rebounds.

"(On the road) a few weeks ago, we lost those two games (WT and LCU) by (a combined 51) points," De los Reyes said. "It shows our growth in the past few weeks."

Maddox and Shipley played the entire 40 minutes, and ENMU sophomore guard Bella Stone would have done the same except she injured a hip when crashing into the bench area with 1:05 left. De los Reyes said her status going forward is unknown.

For what it's worth, ENMU's final three foes (including home-and-home tilts next week against Western New Mexico) are a combined 17-39 in LSC play and 21-49 overall. The Hounds are at Oklahoma Christian on Thursday and at Arkansas-Fort Smith on Saturday before closing against WNMU.

Gomez said he thinks they'll be fine.

"In this conference, anybody can win," he said. "I think Eastern can win games in the postseason."