The Eastern New Mexico University women's basketball team is set to play against UT Dallas on Thursday, December 11, at the UTD Activity Center in Richardson, Texas. The game is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. CST.
Eastern New Mexico enters the matchup with a 5-3 overall record and a 2-0 mark in the Lone Star Conference. The Greyhounds have won their last four games, including recent victories over Cameron and Oklahoma Christian. In their win against Cameron on December 4, they scored 76 points while limiting their opponent to 36. They followed this with a 63-50 win over Oklahoma Christian on December 6.
Junior guard Aaliyah Smith leads Eastern New Mexico in scoring, averaging 11.4 points per game and shooting 46.2 percent from the field. She has also contributed nine three-pointers, converted free throws at a rate of nearly 65 percent, collected 17 rebounds across seven games, and recorded eight assists along with thirteen steals.
Junior forward Julieta Ceja averages 11.3 points per game for the Greyhounds and shoots just over fifty percent from the field. Ceja has made eight three-pointers out of eighteen attempts and secured forty-eight rebounds in eight games—twenty-three of those coming on offense. She has also tallied eleven assists and ten steals.
Senior forward Chloe Dallas adds an average of 10.6 points per game for Eastern New Mexico while shooting above fifty-five percent from the floor. Dallas has made eleven free throws out of eighteen attempts and grabbed thirty-eight rebounds in five games while blocking five shots.
Senior guard Nataya Lockett contributes an average of 10.4 points per game and shoots thirty-five percent from the field. Lockett has been effective at the free-throw line with a seventy-five percent conversion rate and has pulled down twenty-six rebounds in eight games along with thirteen assists.
As a team, Eastern New Mexico averages nearly seventy-four points per game while allowing opponents just over sixty-one—a difference of twelve-and-a-half points per contest. The team shoots forty percent from the field overall and thirty-four percent from beyond the arc, converting about sixty-seven percent of its free throws. On average, they hold a slight rebounding edge over opponents (37 to 35) and force twenty-three turnovers per game while committing seventeen themselves.
UT Dallas comes into Wednesday's contest with a record of three wins and three losses after securing a close victory against Paul Quinn College on December 4 by a score of seventy-five to seventy-two. The Comets average almost seventy-three points per game offensively while giving up just under sixty-two defensively.
Junior guard Umi Otsuka leads UT Dallas in scoring at fifteen points per game while making half her shots from the field. Otsuka has hit five three-pointers out of fifteen tries, converted more than eighty percent of her free throws (twenty-one out of twenty-six), gathered twenty-six rebounds in six games, dished out twelve assists, and recorded five steals.
Graduate guard Anna Yellen scores an average of twelve-and-a-half points each outing for UT Dallas while making more than thirty-seven percent of her shots overall—and nearly thirty-eight percent from long range—while remaining perfect at the free-throw line through six games.
Senior forward Addy Self averages nine-and-a-half points for UT Dallas on forty-two percent shooting; she leads her team with fifty-one rebounds through six contests alongside sixteen assists and ten blocked shots.
Graduate forward Sheridan Kavanagh provides additional support by averaging eight-and-a-half points per game on forty-percent shooting—including thirty-six percent from behind the arc—and collecting thirty-seven rebounds as well as sixteen assists so far this season.
The Comets shoot forty-two-and-a-half percent as a team overall (thirty-four percent from deep) and convert more than seventy-one percent at the line; they maintain an advantage on rebounding (nearly forty boards per contest compared to about thirty-five for opponents) and average almost seventeen assists each game while forcing close to eighteen turnovers.
This will be the first time that Eastern New Mexico University faces UT Dallas in women's basketball program history.
