Box Score The NMHU Women's Basketball team won the second game of their season series against the Eagles of Northern New Mexico College, by the final score of 78-54. The Cowgirls were looking to get their season back on track after a rough RMAC road trip. The Cowgirls were boosted in this game with some great individual performances, including ever-consistent scorer
Alyssa Lopez and a pair of double-doubles from
Ashley Zaragoza and
Trish Simpson. The Cowgirls had won the previous matchup with the Eagles, in Las Vegas, by the score of 93-52. With the win tonight, on the road in Espanola, N.M., the Cowgirls have swept the season series against the Eagles. With the victory the Cowgirls, led by Head Coach Tiffany Darling, improve to 4-2 in overall play and remain at 0-2 in the RMAC.
Alyssa Lopez has been the model of consistency for the Cowgirls on offense this season and tonight was no exception. Lopez led the Cowgirls in scoring with 19 points in her 27 minutes on the court. She added four rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks to her night's totals. Lopez shot 8-16 from the field and has been the Cowgirls' best performer so far this season, earning her playing time.
Ashley Zaragoza had a great night for the Cowgirls with her first double-double of the season. Zaragoza tied for second on team with 14 points and pulled down 14 rebounds. She also had three steals and garnered the longest time on the court for the Cowgirls with 33 minutes.
Trish Simpson was the second Cowgirls to grab a double-double in the game. Simpson scored 10 points and brought down 10 rebounds. She came off the bench to play 26 minutes in the game, and added an assist and a steal to the Cowgirls' efforts.
China Smith rounded out the night's top performers for the Cowgirls. Smith tied Zaragoza for second in scoring for the Cowgirls with 14 points. She added three rebounds, three steals and an assist in her 15 minutes on the court. Smith has also been a consistent contributor for the Cowgirls this season.
Although the game started out slowly, the Cowgirls were able to build up an 11 point lead with 14:07 remaining in the first half when
Alyssa Lopez hit her only three-pointer of the night. The Eagles managed to stay in the game, but the Cowgirls extended their lead to 13 points off a
Debbie Chavez jump shot. The Eagles were not going to quit easily on their home court and cut the lead to six with 5:56 remaining in the half. The Cowgirls worked their lead back up to 11 points 48 seconds later, but the Eagles came storming back again. Two consecutive three-point shots by the Eagles' Melanie Vigil cut the lead to five, and Vigil would add a lay-up to drop the lead down to three points with 1:53 remaining in the first half. Vigil would end up leading all scorers in the game with 20 points. When the buzzer sounded to end the first half of play, the Cowgirls went into the locker room with a five point lead, 30-25.
The Cowgirls came out of the locker room determined to finish the game strong. They went on an 8-0 run to make the score 38-25 with only 1:51 played in the second half. The Eagles were able to cut that lead to seven with a run on scoring of their own. The Eagles continued to stay with the Cowgirls for a few more minutes but the game changed with 15:46 remaining. The Cowgirls held a nine point lead and they started to find their stride. Cowgirl
Alyssa Lopez turned on the overdrive and with a pair of layups she increased the Cowgirls' lead to 18 with 9:03 left in the game. The Cowgirls began to work together as a team and started to put the Eagles away.
China Smith and
Ashley Zaragoza started to put points on the board and with only 2:51 remaining the score was 76-50 and the Cowgirls enjoyed their biggest lead of the game. When the final buzzer sounded, the Cowgirls had captured the 24 point victory with the final score of 78-54.
The Cowgirls start up Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action again, on 12/9, as they host the Mountaineers of Western State College of Colorado. The Mountaineers are currently in fifth place in the RMAC with a 2-0 conference record and 3-5 in overall play. The Cowgirls will be looking for their first conference win in their first RMAC home game of season at the John A. Wilson Complex in Las Vegas. The game is scheduled for a 6 pm tip-off time, with the Cowboys' game to begin shortly after the Cowgirls' game ends. If you can't make it out to the gym to watch your Cowgirls in action, you can click
HERE to watch the game LIVE on the America One network.
GO COWGIRLS!!!
