Sometimes stats build a skewed view of the overall results and other times they paint the picture perfectly.
It was a case of the latter in Northern New Mexico College’s 55-45 home loss Oct. 27 to Oklahoma Panhandle State University.
The Lady Eagles (1-1) shot a dismal 25 percent from the field on 15-of-59 shooting and failed to score in double-digits in three of the four quarters. Northern scored just nine points in both the first and fourth quarters and eight in the third.
Point guard Cheyenne Cordova also struggled, going 1-of-9 from the field and only scoring three points.
It wasn’t all sour for the Lady Eagles in the first week of the season, as they defeated the University of The Southwest Oct. 25 at home by a score of 64-50.
Cordova played like herself in the opener by tallying 16 points and shooting 50 percent from three-point range.
“She did a hell of a job tonight,” Northern head coach Tony Gallegos said. “She’s the quarterback of our team like I said. She’s got it going and runs the show and she’s in attack mode all the time.”
Cordova was forced to go on the offensive early and often as Northern got off to a sluggish start and fell behind 18-11 after the first quarter of play. Southwest was finding easy buckets in transition and the Lady Eagles’ offense completely stalled and were forced into three traveling calls in part of seven first half turnovers.
As they found themselves down 22-9, Melanie Secody found her way off the bench and proceeded to go on a tear to help Northern go on a 19-1 run as they regained the lead and stretched the margin to 28-23.
Secody hit three consecutive three-point shots and scored two buckets inside for 13 points of the 19 total in the run. She finished as the team’s leading scorer with 18 points.
“Melanie caught fire there and really helped us out,” Gallegos said. “She’s been doing that. Even at the end of last year she saw that we needed somebody to come in and get those baskets and she’s the one that came through at the end of last year. All summer long and all preseason she’s been hitting shots and it shows tonight.”
Gallegos was frustrated with the first quarter performance, but said things changed when they took advantage of their size underneath the basket.
“We got every look we wanted but just couldn’t finish,” he said. We gave them a lot of opportunities on second shots and let them out-rebound us the first half. Once we got over that, we realized we are strong right now, we are bigger than them in the paint.”
The Lady Eagles made it a point to try and go inside and get opportunities at the free throw line and play an inside-out game. Raeanne Herrera, Cheyenne Livingston and Erykah Tallman did most of the dirty work.
The freshman Tallman snagged a team-high nine rebounds and Herrera led the group with eight points.
“I probably gave her too many minutes, but she may have to yell at us to let us know,” Gallegos said about Herrera, who played in her first game back after having surgery on both hips last season. “I think we still need to get her a little more work, get her a few more touches inside. We’re strong in there and I thought Erykah came in and did a great job.”
Northern held a 30-29 lead at halftime, then they found themselves ahead by 10, 48-38, when two sequences all but ended any hope for a Lady Mustangs’ comeback effort.
Holly Woodbury scored her only bucket of the night on an aggressive drive through the lane, all while potentially being fouled on the play. The strong, surging layup got the entire Northern bench on their feet — and they would return there the next trip down the court.
After draining another three-point shot to make four in-a-row dating back to the first half, Secody found her way inside to an easy layup after a behind-the-back move left her defender shook and confused — which again excited the bench.
Transfer Jazlynn Muñiz was in the starting lineup but has yet to settle in to her shot that made her such a scoring threat while at Little Priest Tribal College. Muñiz is just 1-of-10 from three-point range and has shot 6-of-22 through the first two games.
Northern has a rematch with Southwest 6 p.m., Thursday (11/1), this time at Hobbs, before returning home to host Fort Lewis College 5 p.m., Friday.