KINGSVILLE— The Javelinas couldn’t convert on the offensive end Saturday afternoon as the Eastern New Mexico Zias handed Texas A&M-Kingsville a 76-63 defeat at Kleberg Bank Court.
Click here for boxscore
Click here for season stats
The loss dropped the Javelinas fall to 8-12 overall and 3-4 in Lone Star Conference South Division action while the win improved the Zias to 10-10 overall and 1-7 in LSC South play.
“We had a chance to really make a statement and we squandered it away,” Javelina coach Dina Kangas said. “Their defense gave us some problems and being in foul trouble didn’t help us. In the second half Lana got double-teamed every time. We’ve got some work to do but we’ll be ready for next week.”
Dyana Bullinger had 14 points and Angela Trotter added 10 for the Javelinas.
Elizabeth Richards led the Zias with 26 points and 19 rebounds.
Texas A&M-Kingsville out-rebounded the Zias 39-31, but for the first time all season, lost a game when it out-rebounded their opponent.
“We missed probably 10 lay-ups in the last 10 minutes,” Kangas said. “You can’t miss lay-ups like that when you’re trying to get back in the game. We had a couple defensive breakdowns. We’ve got people who forgot who their shooters are.”
The Zias shot 50 percent from the floor in each half while the Javelinas could manage to hit only 34 percent of their shots.
The Javelina bench out-scored the Zia bench 27-14 as Felicia Soza scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds, Regan Sutton had a career-high six points and Lisa Garza added five points.
Turnovers hurt the Javelinas. Texas A&M-Kingsville turned the ball over 24 times as the Zias out-scored the Javelinas 22-13 in points off of turnovers.
Texas A&M-Kingsville trailed 37-29 at the half and Eastern increased the lead to 14, 49-35 with 14:31 left in the game.
But the Javelinas rallied, scoring eight consecutive points while putting together an 11-1 run to cut the lead to 51-45. Trotter scored four consecutive points to start the rally and Bullinger buried a 3-point shot to cap it.
But Eastern responded, methodically pulling away and not allowing the Javelinas to cut the lead under double-digits over the final five minutes.
The game opened with a quick three-pointer from Bullinger to put the Javelinas in the lead 3-0, but Riikka Lehtonton tied things after a bucket and a free throw.
Then Lehtonton scored again two possessions later to give the Zias a 5-3 lead with just over 17:56 remaining in the first half. After Heather Brown drove back across the court the Zias were up 7-3. The Zias put up two more points after Brown saved a ball from going out of bounds and dished it to Lindsey Wood for another score to put the Zias up 9-3.
The Zias run was finally broken when Lana Toki scored a bucket to inch the Javelinas within eight at 13-5. Then Reagan Sutton laid one down for the Hogs with just over 13:39 To play in the first half to make the score 17-7. But the Zias kept pouring it on by taking a 22-9 lead with 12:48 left in the first half.
The Hogs began cutting the lead when Dyana Bullinger sank a three to make things 24-16. Meghan Lewis continued to cut the lead with a lay-up. But the Zias went on a 7-1 run with 7:33 left on the clock that ended with Missy Kirkland making a bucket.
The Javelinas outscored the Zias 10-6 to end the half with scores from Bullinger, Maldonado and Lisa Garza. The Zias took a 37-29 lead into halftime.
If anything kept the Javelinas contention in the first half it was their free throw shooting, hitting 9 of 11 for 81.8 percent.
