Chaps hold off Greyhounds

PORTALES - The 2016-17 Eastern New Mexico men's basketball team is still searching for its first win on its home court, losing to Lubbock Christian 73-67 Tuesday night.

Led by CoRnell Neal and Marquise Harris, who both scored 17 points on the night, the Greyhounds (4-8, 0-4 LSC) were once again out-shot in Greyhound Arena. While the Hounds are not necessarily shooting poorly, hitting just under 40 percent of their shots during this particular contest, their opponents are simply shooting better.

Neal, who now leads the Greyhounds in scoring with 16.6 points per game, said "I'm just trying to do what ever it takes to win. As for tonight, like the last couple of games, the ball just feels good as I shoot it. I've been taking fairly good shots, trying to get to the spots I like. I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates for getting me the ball and trusting me with it."

The Chaps (6-4) finished the night hitting 47 percent of their field goal attempts. LCU had three players carry the load for them, with big man Brennen Fowler leading the way at 19 points, while both Chuck Kendley and Ridrell Holman added 18. Fowler also added 10 rebounds, recording a double-double.

Eastern not only held its own the first half, but actually headed into the locker room with a 31-26 advantage. Where the Hounds struggled was in the second half on both ends of court. The Chaps also found their stroke in the second, knocking down 55 percent of their shots.

ENMU head coach Tres Segler said, "I think we took the right (shots) for the most part, but defensively, there is a difference between close-outs and making guys miss. We talk about it all the time in practice, but we have to make guys miss, especially teams like that, that shoot 40 percent from the three. I think we needed to do a better job of that tonight, particularly in the second half."

Another point of concern for the Greyhounds was giving up offensive rebounds and allowing their opponents too many second chance points. The Chaps outscored the Hounds 16-8 in that category.

That was a major turning point in the game, when Eastern had an eight-point second half lead that was quickly erased by several put-backs by the Chaps after offensive rebounds. That would continually happen seemingly all night for Eastern, going for minutes without allowing any Chaps near the glass, then all of the sudden giving up second chance after second chance before resuming their defensive board work.

"A bunch of these (our) guys in their past careers, they are so big and athletic, they were able to jump and chase and not block out," said Segler. "In the Lone Star, the Heartland, you have to block out to rebound and then use your athleticism, so we are learning that. While I would like to get there faster, the guys are picking it up."

All things considered, ENMU was in the hunt till the very end. The loss of Harris to a fifth foul under two minutes to go wouldn't help the Hounds' comeback aspirations. Harris was, up to that point, scorching the net from beyond the arc on 5-of-6 3-point shooting.

As for Harris, an emerging leader on the team, while losing is never great, the standout scorer hasn't given up hope yet and seems to have a good grasp on what Eastern can do to turn things around.

"We basically just have to stay mentally focused for the whole 40 minutes. We will either give the first 20 minutes all we got, then play lackadaisical in the last 20 or vice versa. We just have to grow from our losses, come together as a team and just compete hard for the whole 40 minutes. The losses we've been getting now will turn into wins if we can do that," said Harris.