KINGSVILLE, Texas – With their losing streak in the rearview mirror, the Texas A&M-Kingsville women's basketball team is set for its longest road trip of the season, which begins with visits to Eastern New Mexico on Jan. 18th at 11 a.m. and Western New Mexico on Jan. 20th for a 3 p.m. tip-off.
The Javelinas (4-12, 1-7) topped UT Permian Basin on Thursday for their first Lone Star Conference win of the season. Angelica Wilson helped lead the charge by raking in her sixth double-double of the season and Madison Crawford set a new career-high by dishing out seven assists. The four-point win, even with a loss on Saturday, helped TAMUK move within two games of the final spot in the Lone Star Conference tournament, which is currently held by Texas Woman's. A year ago, the Hoggies nabbed the final spot in the conference tournament and proceeded to become the first eight seed in LSC history to upset the tourney's top-ranked team. That victory, which came at the expense of Eastern New Mexico, represents the last time the Javs visited Portales.
Wilson continues to pile up impressive performances during her final year in the Blue and Gold. She leads the team in double-figure scoring performances and also ranks in fourth in the conference in rebounds-per-game with an average of 8.3. Not far behind Wilson in that category is junior Tatyana McFarland, who is one game removed from an eight-point, ten rebound performance against Falcons.
The Greyhounds, who currently reside in seventh place in the LSC, own a conference record of 4-4 and are 8-7 overall. They recently saw a three-game losing streak snapped, but they have still won five of their previous seven. Eastern has also won their last two home games, a welcome change of fortunes for coach Josh Prock, who watched his team drop their first three games inside Greyhound Arena.
TAMUK will be dealing with arguably the best home team in the Lone Star Conference. They permit an average of only 59.5 points-per-game, second in the league, and they reside at the top of the LSC leaderboard in field goal percentage allowed and three-point field goal percentage allowed with marks of 33.1% and 25.5%, respectively. The Greyhounds also permit opponents to haul in 35.5 rebounds-per-game, the second-lowest total in the conference.
Kingsville visited Portales twice last season, including in the conference tourney, and both times they emerged victorious. For the Javelinas, it was payback for mid-January, when the Greyhounds visited the Steinke Physical Education Center and left with a 63-52 win. ENMU owns an edge in the all-time series, with 39 wins compared to 30 losses.
The star of the show for coach Prock this season has been senior Mikaehla Connor, who resides just outside the LSC's top 10 with mark of 11.9 ppg. When these schools met for the first time last year, Connor collected a game-high 17 points. She also put up 15 points when the teams met in the conference tournament. This season, Connor has scored in double-figures nine times, including a 20-point day against Texas A&M-Commerce on Dec. 7th. She enters Thursday's clash having scoring tallied at least 15 points in three consecutive contests.
Western New Mexico is still searching for its first victory, as evidenced by their 0-16 overall record. The closest the Mustangs have come to claiming a win this season was in consecutive games in November, when they fell by four points to St. Mary's and New Mexico Highlands. The Javelinas were the last team to suffer a defeat at the hands of Western New Mexico, as they fell to the Mustangs on February 23rd of last year. The greatest strength for WNMU this season has been their stroke from the foul line, where they've shot 74%, good enough for second in the conference.
Ciara Fields has been the driving force for the Mustangs offense this season, as evidenced by her average of nearly 12 ppg. She's coming off one of her toughest performances of the year against Cameron, where she was held to just six points, which broke streak of six straight games with 12 points or more.
These programs will clash for just the fourth time on Saturday. Western New Mexico has taken two of the previous three meetings, giving TAMUK a chance to even things. When the Hoggies beat the Mustangs last season, Meesha Wade led all participants with 18 points and Ope Ibrahim contributed 16 off the bench. When Western returned the favor in February, it was due in large part to Jordan Gutierrez and her 36 points.
For full coverage of both games, including a comprehensive recap following the final buzzer, you can visit Javelinaathletics.com. To receive content for Texas A&M-Kingsville women's basketball, you can follow @TAMUKWBB on Twitter and Instagram, like the official Facebook page of Javelina athletics (/JavelinaSports) and subscribe to the Javelina Athletics YouTube channel.
