The Ladys Hawk team hangs tough with #8 team in nation
Escape. That's what the New Mexico Junior College Thunderbird were able to do Monday at night at Dorothy Garrett Coliseum. The T-Birds flew in at No. 8 in the nation, sporting a 15-3 record. Two of those losses came in a grinding stretch in league play. NMJC managed to come away with a 63-50 win over the upset minded Howard squad.
This Howard squad hardly resembled the team that lost to Frank Phillips last Thursday night. Monday Howard faced a giant and came oh so close to conquering it. The giant stood in the form of a NMJC team that had four players over six-foot tall, the tallest standing 6-5. Howard scratched and clawed the whole game, although NMJC held a 3022 rebounding edge.
NMJC coach Austin Mefford said his squad may have been a little lackadaisical but took nothing away from the Howard squad.They (Howard) played well, Coach Ishee had them very well prepared for us. Sometimes when you are in our position and we tend to overlook things. We got off to a slow start, we didn't do a good job of defending. We really played well in the fourth quarter. We've played four of our first five conference on the road. It's a tough conference. We're just ready to get home and play some basketball."
Howard took the fight right to the T-Birds, jumping out to a 8-2 lead thanks to two baskets by Kiara Green.
In fact Howard led the entire first half .Daysha Tijerina made sure Howard stayed on top by hitting a couple of three-pointers. Tijerina led Howard with 13 points, making four of seven from three. Kaeona Marquez made three-of-five threes to end up with 11 points. Green was the other Lady Hawk in double figures with 10.
Howard led 31-27 at..halftime HC got the lead up to 34-29 with eight minutes left in third quarter but NMJC slowly crawled back, going on a 9-0 run to take a 38-34 lead.
Tijerina made another three and Howard trailed 43-42 going into the fourth quarter.
The T-Birds soared in the final quarter behind the play of point guard Delma Zita and the inside play of 6-2 freshman reserve post player Danna Grenald, who came off the bench to score 18 points and grab eight rebounds. Zita gave Howard ball handlers trouble all game. She finished with eight steals and 15 points.
Ishee said he had no complaints about his squad's effort. "You know Breeley Oakley (Howard forward) doesn't have a whole lot of natural athletic ability, but she's has a lot of fight in her. The way she fought their bigs underneath It gave us a great lift. I told them of them I'm extremely proud of them all. If they play every game like they did tonight , we'll win some games."
Howard will be on the road Thusday when it plays Clarendon at 5:45 p.m.
NMJC (16-3, 3-2) - Delma Zita 7 1 15; Madina Camara 1 1 3; Jada Miller 5 2 12; Precious Cowan 1 0 2; Bianna Juzzo 3 0 6; Dana Greenald 7 4 18; Cabria Lewis 1 1 3; Mariamma Sow 1 2 4; totals 26-64, 8-15 63,
HOWARD (7-11, 0-5) - Kiara Green 4 2 10; Keona Marquez 3 2 11; Jasmine Elder 3 1 7; Daniela Prodomo 1 0 2; Charney Robinson 2 0 4; Daysha Tijerina 4 1 13; totals 18-50, 7-12 5 NMJC 11-16-16-20 - 63 Howard11-20-11-08 - 50.
Turnovers - NMJC 19, Howard 24; Three Pointers - NMJC (Miller 2, Lewis 1) Howard (Tijerina 4, Marquez 3); Rebounds - NMJC 30 (Grenald 8, Miller 5); Howard 22 (Elder 5); Assists - NMJC (Lewis 4); Howard (Green 4); Steals - NMJC (Zita 8 Juzzo 2, Sow 2) HC (Green 2 )Blocked Shots - NMJC (Grenwald, 1, Miller 1) Howard (Green 1).