SAN ANGELO, Texas – The Eastern New Mexico men’s basketball team won its first game of the regular season as the Hounds dominated Jarvis Christian 88-60 in their final game of the Ed Messbarger Classic at Angelo State on Saturday.
The Greyhounds (1-3) got off to a strong start as Darius Sawyer threw down a dunk off an alley-oop from Isaiah Murphy 12 seconds into the game. The Hounds scored 10 of the first 11 points of the first half with Zach Parker scoring four points on a pull-up jumper and capped off on a pair of free throws, giving the Hounds a 10-1 advantage just 3:33 into the game.
After the Bulldogs (2-4) cut the lead to seven at 12-5, Mangistu Jongkor ignited a 15-0 run with a three-pointer from the left wing and senior forward Chukuka Emili closed out the run with a fastbreak dunk with 10:09 to go to make it a 27-5 game.
JCC snapped the streak with a layup at the 9:56mark, but Eastern closed the half with a 21-2 streak started by Parker three-pointer from the right side and Jongkor once again buried a three with less than a minute left to send the Hounds into the halftime break with a commanding 48-9 advantage.
In the opening half, the Greyhounds knocked down 18-of-34 (53-percent) from the field and were 6-of-13 (46-percent) from the three-point arc. Jongkor led the offensive efforts, tallying 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting and 2-of-3 from the three-point arc.
Defensively, Eastern limited the Bulldogs to just 3-of-21 (14-percent) from the field and 0-for-6 from three while also forcing 16 JCC turnovers.
Senior guard Maurice Coleman quickly gave the Hounds a 40-point lead with a three-pointer from the left side less than a minute into the second half to make it 51-11.
Over the next 10 minutes, Eastern maintained at least a 35-point edge and took its largest advantage at 43 with an Isaiah Murphy layup with 9:43 to go, making it 70-27. The Bulldogs scored on their next possession, but the Hounds reclaimed the 43-point edge once more on the next play off another Emili dunk with 9:06 left to make it 72-29, putting the game too far out of reach for Jarvis Christian.
For the game, ENMU converted on 31-of-63 (49-percent) of its shots and made 8-of-23 (35-percent) from three-point range while also knocking down 18-of-25 (72-percent) from the free throw line.
Parker led the scoring efforts for the Hounds with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and converted on 2-of-4 from the three-point arc. Murphy chipped in 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting, while Deng Kuany added 10 points on 5-of-7 from the field to go with six rebounds and two steals, joining Jongkor who scored all 10 of his points in the first half.
Isaac Maldonado led the rebounding efforts with seven, while Coleman, Sawyer, and Nick Brown each chipped in three assists apiece.
The Greyhounds will return to action next week as they will travel to El Paso, Texas for an exhibition match-up with Division I UTEP at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 9.
