Lewis leads Lady T-Birds to victory

JASON FARMER  NEWS-SUN
January 31, 2020

It wasn't pretty, but the New Mexico Junior College women's basketball team still managed to get a win Thursday night as the Lady Thunderbirds beat visiting Western Texas College 64-50.

"The thing for us is that Western (Texas College) is a much better team than most people give them credit for," NMJC coach Drew Sanders said. "They played Midland close at home and they played us close at their place. And of course, they had three wins in conference coming in, so it was a good game and they never quit."

The second quarter was not a pretty one for the Lady T-Birds. After leading by as many as 14 with just over five minutes left in the second quarter, NMJC let Western Texas College climb back into the game. The Lady Westerners outscored the Lady T-Birds 17-12, cutting NMJC's lead to just two points, 30-28, at the break.

"We went through a period in the second quarter where we had established a pretty good lead, then we started turning the ball over," Sanders said. "We turned it over like eight out of nine possessions and that allowed them to get back in (the game)."

New Mexico Junior College came out of the break ready to play as the Lady T-Birds outscored the Lady Westerners 18-7 in the third quarter. The Lady T-Birds opened the second half with three steals and a 10-0 run. By the end of the third quarter, the Lady T-Birds had pushed their lead back to double-digits, 48-35.

The Lady T-Birds scored just enough in the fourth quarter to stay ahead of the Lady Westerners. NMJC had 16 points over the final 10 minutes while Western Texas scored 15.

"That was big. That established a little breathing room," Sanders said. "And then made it harder for them to stay in the zone. This team, we rely a lot on defensive transition points and we were able to get out and do that and get the running game going."

Hobbs graduate Amaya Lewis carried the Lady T-Birds in the second half, in scoring and on the glass. After scoring just four points and grabbing three boards in the first half, the NMJC sophomore scored 14 points to finish with a game-high 18. The former Lady Eagle also had 12 rebounds, nine in the second half, to finish with a double-double. Additionally, she chipped in with four steals and three assists.

Selina Dockery had 14 points for NMJC. Eliana Cabral contributed nine points for NMJC and a game-high 13 boards. She was just 1-of-3 from the charity stripe though. Cabral also had a game-high five steals and five assists. Mayra Caicedo only had five points, but finished with six rebounds and six assists.

With the win, the Lady T-Birds improve to 15-6 on the season and move to 6-2 in Western Junior College Athletic Conference play. NMJC will be back on the road Monday when the Lady T-Birds travel to Odessa to play the Lady Wranglers at 5:45 p.m. (CST).

"That is going to be really, really tough," Sanders said. "They are playing really, really well. They lost by two points to South Plains and then they lost by two points here, to us. They are a really, really good team and playing them at their place, we are going to have to play our A game for sure."