Kingsville - In the final home game of its season, the Texas A&M-Kingsville women's basketball team missed a potential game-winning shot at the buzzer, falling, 57-56, to the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds on Saturday.
Two different Javelinas topped 20 points in the game, the first time that has happened this season, as both redshirt junior guard
Kaycee Groves and sophomore forward
Thalia Daniels each dropped 21 in the contest, combining for 42 of Kingsville's 56 team points. Despite out-scoring their opponents in the fourth quarter for the second straight game, the Javelinas came up just short in the Lone Star Conference clash.
"I really liked our fight, our battle," Head Coach
Michael Madrid said. "Played really well, Eastern is really good, really athletic, really well-coached, obviously they're going to be a regional tournament team and you know we're capable of playing with those teams when we play the right way."
As has become a recent trend for Kingsville, its crew battled a very good team in the second half, as the Javelinas pushed the regionally-ranked Greyhounds to the brink. They took a lead as large as three in the game's waning moments, but gave up back-to-back buckets in the contest's final two minutes.
The fourth quarter, like much of the second half, was dogfight, with both Groves and Daniels stepping up big. Daniels finished off her career day with 10 fourth-quarter points, combining with Groves to notch 16 of TAMUK's 18 points in the final frame. Daniels' 21 points are a new single-game career high, as were her six assists. For Groves, it marks the sixth straight game that she has scored in double figures, three of which saw her go for 21-plus.
"You know T is a really good player, has battled some injuries this year, maybe hasn't played the way she would like to play but it was fun to see her kind of have her coming out party, if you will, knocked down some big shots for us at critical times," Madrid said. "You know, Kaycee was able to be who Kaycee is at times, and just credit to our team, finding them at the right times and them taking advantage of opportunities."
A slow start plagued the Javelinas once again, as they scored single-digit points in the first quarter for their second straight game, and trailed by as many as 10 in the second quarter. But, as they have a number of times this year, they were quick to respond. A 12-0 run from Kingsville saw the team tear its way back into the game as the team held ENMU scoreless for 3:18 of gametime.
Eastern, however, recaptured control of the game in the third, leading for the entire of the second half until Kingsville made its move, taking a late fourth quarter lead on an 11-3 run that included eight Daniels points. The last two minutes, however, saw Eastern do just enough to pull out the road win.
"They just continue to come to work every day and get better," Madrid said. "Today they were really, really good and they were fun to watch, and they were fun to coach. SO just continue to build on it, we've got two more left. We go on the road, play two quality programs that are well-coached and, we just look forward to that opportunity and are thankful for it."
The Javelinas have a pair of road games remaining on their schedule, as they will head to UT-Tyler on Thursday before taking on No.2 Texas Woman's in TAMUK's season finale on Saturday.
