Box Score The NMHU Cowgirls Basketball team won their first game of the season, 93-52, at home against the Eagles of Northern New Mexico College. The Eagles were able to stay with the Cowgirls throughout much of the first half thanks to a 78% free throw percentage in the half. The Cowgirls began to pull away in the last three minutes of the first half and went into the locker room with a 17 point lead. The Cowgirls came out in the second half determined to put the Eagles away. They began to extend their lead with 15 minutes left in the game, holding a 23 point lead at that point. The Cowgirls extended their lead to 34 points with 9:08 remaining and never let go of the momentum. When the final buzzer had sounded, the Cowgirls had secured their first win of the season with the 41 point victory over the Eagles. The Cowgirls, led by Head Coach Tiffany Darling, start the season out in great shape with a 1-0 record in overall play.
Alyssa Lopez was the leading scorer for the Cowgirls. She put up 16 points, thanks to shooting 4-7 from beyond the three-point line. Lopez shot 6-11 from the field, and added four rebounds, an assist, and a steal in her 25 minutes on the court.
China Smith picked up where she left off from the 2010-11 season by grabbing her first double-double of the year. Smith scored 15 points and pulled down 12 rebounds in her 22 minutes of play. She shot 7-8 from the field, adding three assists and four steals in the game.
Eboni Jacobs had a good night in her first game for the Cowgirls with 11 points. Jacobs shot 4-8 from the field, 2-3 from three-point range and had two steals in her 16 minutes on the court.
Whitley Coca rounded out the Cowgirls' top scorers with nine points in the game. Coca showed her court leadership skills with six assists, five steals and two rebounds in her 23 minutes of playing time.
The Cowgirls struggled with the Eagles in the first half, due to their inability to make free-throws in the half, shooting only 30% from the charity stripe. The Eagles compounded that problem with their 78% free-throw shooting in the half, but were only able to make 28% of their field goals in the half. The Cowgirls remedied their free-throw shooting problem in the second half, hitting 60% of their shots from the charity stripe in the half.
The Cowgirls controlled the boards in the game, grabbing 46 rebounds as a team. Their success at rebounding the ball led to 25 second chance points.
The Cowgirls scored 40 points off of turnovers in the game and excelled in the paint, with 40 points scored. The Cowgirls' bench came up big in the game for them, scoring 48 points.
The Cowgirls will be in action again on 11/22, as they travel to Goodwell, Okla., to take on the Aggies of Oklahoma Panhandle State University. The Aggies hold a 0-1 record after their first loss of the season to Adams State College. The Aggies have three more games on their schedule before they face the Cowgirls. The game is scheduled for a 7 pm tip-off time. If you can't make the trip to Oklahoma to watch your Cowgirls in action, you can catch follow the action through the Cowgirls' live stats found on the
NMHU Athletics' web page.
GO COWGIRLS!!!
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