PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico men’s basketball team is ready to close out its 2018-19 home schedule as the Greyhounds will take on Texas A&M-Kingsville and Angelo State in a pair of vital Lone Star Conference matchups this week.
The Hounds will face the Javelinas at 7:30 p.m. Thursday night for Breast Cancer Awareness Night, presented by U.S. Bank. The Greyhounds will then challenge Angelo State at 4 p.m. on Saturday as Eastern New Mexico will honor its five seniors: Nick Brown, Maurice Coleman, Chukuka Emili, Arcaim Lallemand, and Zach Parker prior to the tip of the Senior Day game, presented by J.P. Stone Community Bank.
LAST TIME OUT
The Greyhounds picked up a pair of wins at home last week, first defeating UT-Permian Basin 83-66 on Thursday before following it up with a 99-80 win over Western New Mexico last Saturday.
Since the two teams started playing each other in 2014, the Greyhounds defeated the Falcons for just the second time in the program’s history and the first time ever inside Greyhound Arena. Eastern dominated the second half after Permian Basin narrowed the gap to two at 51-49 with 15:09 to play, as the Greyhounds outscored the Falcons 32-17 over the final 15 minutes. Parker led three Hounds in double-figures with 16 points and three steals, while Emili turned in a double-double with 16 points, 13 rebounds to go with three steals and two blocks.
The Greyhounds put together one of their best offensive performances of the season against the Mustangs, scoring the second-most points of the season (98) on the second-best field goal percentage (55.6) while recording the most assists (26) in a single game this season as well as a season-high eight blocks. Once again, Emili had a dominant game, leading six Greyhounds in double-figures with a career-high 25 points and 13 rebounds to go with a career-best six blocks. Eastern was particularly sharp in the second half, shooting 16-of-25 (64 percent) from the floor and 5-of-7 (71.4 percent) from three-point range.
SCOUTING THE JAVELINAS
Texas A&M-Kingsville comes into the week with a 10-10 overall record and are currently sixth in the Lone Star with a 6-6 record, a half-game back of the Hounds in the fifth spot. The Javelinas have struggled of late, dropping three in a row entering Thursday’s contest. Last week, TAMUK dropped a hard-fought 77-72 game at Angelo State in their only contest of the week. The Javelinas prefer to play a low-possession, defensive style of basketball as they currently rank as the worst scoring offense in the league at 68.8 points per game, but are the best scoring defense in the LSC and rank 22nd in NCAA Division II at 66.1 ppg. Kingsville is the only team in the LSC without a single player averaging double-figures in scoring as junior guard Rashon Thomas and freshman guard Darius Mickens co-lead the team with 189 points on a 9.5 ppg average. On top of his offensive production, Mickens is also the steals leader on the team with 38, averaging the fourth-most steals per game in the conference at 1.9. Senior forward Robert Stevenson is the team’s top rebounder with 143 at 7.2 rpg, the sixth-most in the Lone Star and currently has 32 blocks, the second-most in the league. Junior guard Chauncey Thomas is the team’s leader in assists with 57.
HISTORY WITH THE JAVELINAS
In 70 previous meetings, Texas A&M-Kingsville holds a 46-24 edge over the Hounds in the all-time series dating back to 1985. The series has been a tightly contested one the past three seasons as three of the last four games have been decided by three points or less and in the last matchup earlier this season at Kingsville, the Javelinas and Hounds were tied with 7:33 left before Kingsville pulled away with an 18-9 run to hand the Hounds a 68-59 defeat. The Hounds will be seeking to avenge a loss at home last season against the Javelinas when TAMUK sank a game-winning three-pointer with 10 seconds left in overtime to stun the Greyhounds.
SCOUTING THE RAMS
Angelo State makes its way into the week with a 16-5 overall mark and are currently third in the LSC with a 9-3 record, a half-game behind Texas A&M-Commerce for second. The Rams played just one game last week, being a home win against their conference travel partner in Kingsville. The Rams enter the week with the third-best scoring differential in the conference at 8.9 ppg after ranking fourth in scoring offense (79.7 ppg) and third in scoring defense (70.8 ppg). Senior forward Antonio Singleton leads four Rams in double-digit scoring on the season at 13.2 ppg, shooting a 46.5 percent clip from the field while also leading the team in three-point field goals, converting 50-of-115 at 43.5 percent. At 2.4 three-point field goals per game, Singleton is tied at the top of the LSC. Junior guard Ronald Bell tops the team with 150 rebounds, ranking seventh in the conference at 7.1 rpg. Senior guard James Kirksey is TAMUK’s assist leader on the season with 57 as well as steals leader with 45, topping the Lone Star at 2.2 spg.
HISTORY WITH THE RAMS
The Hounds and Rams will be playing each other for the 77th time in the programs’ respective histories with the first ever meeting dating back to Feb. 3, 1969 during Eastern’s 1969 NAIA National Championship run. Angelo State leads the all-time series against Eastern with a 42-34 record as the two teams have split the last four meetings. The Greyhounds will be looking to avenge an 88-69 loss to the Rams in San Angelo, Texas earlier this season on Jan. 10. The last time the two teams met in Portales, the Hounds held off a furious Rams comeback to come away with a 92-89 win. Coleman knocked down a pair of free throws with eight seconds left to make it a three-point game, forcing the Rams to take a three-pointer to tie, but ASU couldn’t convert the equalizer on the final shot of the game. Parker and Coleman led five Hounds in double-figures with 17 and 16 points respectively in the win.
SENIOR DAY
Before the start of Saturday’s game against Angelo State, Eastern New Mexico will honor its five seniors playing in their final home game of 2019. Nick Brown, Maurice Coleman, Chukuka Emili, Arcaim Lallemand, and Zach Parker will each be playing their final games inside Greyhound Arena. The five seniors have led the Greyhounds to a 5-2 record at home this season. In two seasons at ENMU, Brown has scored 343 points, scoring 7.1 ppg. Brown is currently having a career-best season, scoring 8.8 ppg and is second on the team with 36 made three-pointers. In his second season with the Hounds, Coleman has made a major impact at the point position, scoring 371 points (7.9 ppg) and dishing out 152 assists (3.2 apg) in 47 games. In his first season with the Greyhounds, Emili has made a major impact in the low post. In 21 games, Emili is second on the team in points (249, 11.9 ppg) and is the team’s leader in rebounds (171, 8.1 rpg) as well as blocks (44, 2.1 bpg). In his third season in Portales, Lallemand has been a staple of the Greyhounds lineup. Lallemand has played in 62 games and has made 38 starts, scoring 346 points and ripping down 291 rebounds. Lallemand will be best known for his defensive prowess on the team, after coming up with a clutch block on the final possession in the final game of the regular season last year at Texas A&M-Kingsville to propel Eastern to not only a win, but locking up a spot in the Lone Star Conference Tournament. In his two seasons dawning the Gray and Silver, Parker has proved to be a serious scoring threat for the Greyhounds. Parker has played in 49 games and has scored 568 points (11.6 ppg) and has been deadly from behind the arc, converting on 101-of-299 (33.7 percent) tries as well as the free throw line, making 79-of-95 (83.1 percent) attempts.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Coming off a pair of strong offensive and defensive performances last week for the Hounds, Emili was garnered with the Lone Star Conference Offensive Player of the Week Award. In last week’s wins over UT-Permian Basin and Western New Mexico, Emili averaged 20.5 ppg, 13 rpg, and four blocks per game. Against the Falcons, Emili tallied 16 points on 5-for-8 shooting with 13 rebounds and a pair of blocked shots to go with a season-high three steals. Emili was even better against the Mustangs, recording another double-double with a career-high 25 points on 12-of-17 shooting, 13 rebounds, and a career-best six blocked shots. With 44 blocks, Emili is currently the best shot blocker in the Lone Star and is currently 12 blocks ahead of Stevenson from Kingsville. While averaging 8.1 rebounds per contest, Emili is currently the third-best rebounder in the conference, only 0.1 boards behind MSU’s Gilbert Thomas for second.
