PORTALES, N.M. – Eastern New Mexico men’s basketball team will face their first contest of the 2020 year against West Texas A&M this Saturday, Jan. 4, at 4:00 p.m.

LOOKING BACK
Eastern New Mexico finished off the 2019 slate with wins at home against UAFS and Oklahoma Christian to move to 3-2 in Lone Star Conference play. A 52-51 win against UAFS gave the Hounds their first home win of the season and second LSC win. The contest came down to the last couple seconds as Marvin Mapaga went to the free-throw line giving the Hounds their one point lead and eventually a win

Eastern New Mexico followed up the last second heroics from Mapaga with a record setting shooting performance, matching the program record with a three-point percentage of .682 (15-of-22) for the night. The Hounds held the Eagles to a 42.4 field goal percentage and maintained the lead for all but six minutes of the contest.

Junior Ibn Zaid led the team two nights later with a career high 17 points The junior guard from California played his best game of the season finishing with a 75.0 shooting percentage from the field (6-for-8) and a perfect 100.0 percent from beyond the arc, knocking down all four attempts.

Junior Brandon Meadows played his best game so far this season as well, hitting double digits with 12 points after going 4-for-4 from beyond the three-point line. Meadows, a junior guard from the Bahamas, also finished the night leading the Hounds in rebounds with nine. Junior Devin Pullum kept up his solid play with 12 points against Oklahoma Christian and dished out four assists. Junior Garrick Sherrod saw action on the court with four assists and led the Hounds with three steals for the contest.

MOVING FORWARD
The Hounds strong finish to the 2019 slate puts them right back into position to make a run at a third consecutive birth in the LSC Postseason Tournament. Eastern New Mexico will take on five straight in-divisional opponents beginning this Saturday with West Texas A&M.

SCOUTING THE COMPETITION
The Buffs will enter the weekend ranked no. 5 in the NABC Division II Coaches Poll. West Texas leads the LSC in points per game averaging 97.4. The lone loss this season for the Buffs came on the road by a final score of 100-87 against St. Edward’s in Austin, Texas. Before the Christmas vacation, West Texas recorded their 34th straight home win after a 84-56 victory against UAFS.

In his fifth season as head coach, Tom Brown, has turned the program around. Brown and company went 34-4 in 2018-19 and advanced all the way to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight, only the third time in school history. Brown has been to six of the past fourteen Elite Eights and has a 9-3 record in the NCAA Tournament at West Texas A&M.

The Buffs will be led by Joel Murray, who was just recently named LSC Defensive Player of the week, and averages 19.5 points per contest. So far this season Murray has recorded over 25 points in three games and ranks fourth in the LSC for scoring with a total of 253 points this season. Murray will combined with sophomore Qua Grant, who is averaging seven rebounds a game this season, to form the league’s best back court. Grant ranks second in the LSC with a scoring average of 21.5 ppg for the year.

A HISTORIC NIGHT
The Hounds shooting performance against Oklahoma Christian put the team in the record books, matching the performance back on Jan. 8, 2011 with a team three-point percentage of .682. The 15 makes for the Hounds matches the highest total in a contest for the program since 2011 and is the fifth highest total made in a single game in the LSC this year. Six different players made a three point shot while Zaid and Meadows both made all of their attempts.

LEADING THE HOUNDS
Pullum currently leads the Hounds in scoring, averaging 13.3 points a game, while totaling 133 points so far this season. Pullum has posted 20 or more points three times this season and also leads the team with 13 steals on the year. Junior Yosnier Cobas leads the Hounds in both rebounding with 60 total boards and in blocked shots with 11 for the year. The Florida native ranks second in the LSC for blocked shots with an average of 1.3 a game.

SO FAR THIS SEASON
In their first LSC match up the Hounds visited rival West Texas A&M back on Nov. 23 and fell victim to a rolling Buffs squad, 93-78. In their first home court contest, the Hounds welcomed Wayland Baptist to the Greyhound Arena. Despite a late rally that brought them within points of a tie, the Hounds were unable to secure a win inside Greyhound Arena, falling by a final score of 76-70.

Packing up for their first road trip of the season, ENMU saw their first win of the season against St. Mary’s after out-rebounding the Rattlers 43-to-38. From there, the Hounds traveled to St. Edward’s where they were matched with an impressive offensive team and were unable to bring home another LSC win.

The Hounds saw back to back wins against LSC competitors before Christmas vacation. A 52-51 win against UAFS gave the Hounds their first home win of the season and second LSC win. Eastern New Mexico came back to Greyhound Arena to face Oklahoma Christian the following Saturday and were on fire as they swept the week with a 81-66 victory.

NEW LOOK LSC
The Lone Star Conference expanded to 19 schools with the addition of Dallas Baptist University, Lubbock Christian University, Oklahoma Christian University, St. Edward’s University, St. Mary’s University, Texas A&M International University, University of Arkansas-Fort Smith and University of Texas at Tyler, making it the biggest Division II conference in the nation.

The LSC will be divided into three divisions and will play 22 conference games with division foes playing home-and-away series against each other and once versus the rest of the conference. The top four schools from each division will move on to the postseason tournament with the opening round being held on campus of the higher seed before the final eight teams battle it out at Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas.

The Hounds division will include Angelo State, Lubbock Christian, UT Permian Basin, West Texas A&M and Western New Mexico.