The UTPB women’s basketball team managed to keep it close, but it wasn’t enough as they fell short 61-55 to Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds Saturday afternoon at the Falcon Dome.
The Falcons were outscored in three quarters in their six-point loss.
“We need to do better on rebounding and taking care of the ball,” UTPB head coach Rae Boothe said. “We knew it was going to be a tough game and we didn’t really do a good job with those two. We weren’t able to pull it out.”
Nyachristmas Puok and Khali Pippins-Tryon led the Falcons (3-9, 0-4 Lone Star Conference) with 10 points each.
The Greyhounds (9-3, 4-0) were led by Treyanna Clay’s 12 points and nine from Zamorye Cox.
“I think our defense was really good tonight,” said Eastern New Mexico head coach Josh Prock. “We made it very difficult for them to get a few shots. Offensively, we’ve struggled a bunch during these last few games.”
Prock added, “But we’ll get that back. We’ll get our offense going.”
The Greyhounds got off to a good start with an 11-4 run to open the quarter.
But through the first five minutes of the game, the Falcons could only muster two field goals.
They didn’t get their third until a Sarah Bersang layup with 4:52 left in the first quarter with Eastern New Mexico leading 13-6.
Consecutive free throws by Lemia Ntor-Ue brought the Falcons back within five and had closed the gap to 16-13 at the end of the first quarter.
The Greyhounds used an 8-3 run to start the second quarter, helped with a Sydney Clark 3-pointer with 6:03 left in the first half to take a 24-16 lead.
A layup and a free throw by Kristian James brought the Falcons to a 28-24 deficit with 1:33 left in the second quarter.
30 seconds later, Bersang’s free throws made it a two-point game and the Falcons trailed 28-26 at the half.
But the Greyhounds found a way to respond coming out of the halftime break as they expanded their lead to 35-30 at the start of the third quarter.
An Alexandrea Washington 3-pointer closed the Falcons’ deficit to 39-33 with 5:14 left in the third quarter.
UTPB used a 5-0 run, capped by a Puok 3-pointer to cut Eastern New Mexico’s lead to 39-38 with 2:07 left in the third.
The Falcons tied it up at 44-44 with 9:47 left in the game on a layup and free throw by Ntor-Ue.
Clark shot a crucial 3-pointer with two minutes left for a 55-51 Greyhound lead.
Eastern New Mexico managed to hang on and close out with the win.
