Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
PORTALES — The Greyhounds have Lone Star Conference momentum they haven’t seen in 12 years. They’ll need to keep it up to return to the LSC postseason tournament
ENMU never trailed, and turned a must-win into an easy victory with an 82-66 rout of Angelo State on Thursday night at Greyhound Arena.
Lamarquis Thompson had a team-high 15 points and seven rebounds for the Greyhounds (13-14, 7-10 LSC), who have put themselves in position to make the tourney after a 1-9 conference start.
Eastern would finish seventh with a victory on Saturday at home against Texas A&M-Kingsville. If the Hounds don’t get that, they’ll have to hope for an Angelo State loss at Western New Mexico (2-23, 0-17) to finish eighth.
Idle Midwestern State (15-13), which finished on a 2-9 slump in conference play, holds a tiebreaker over the Greyhounds if both teams finish 7-11 in LSC play.
The Greyhounds needed two losses from Texas-Permian Basin and two wins from West Texas A&M this week to have the tiebreaker with Midwestern State. The Falcons had other plans, though, beating Tarleton State 86-74 on Thursday to create a tie for the top spot entering Saturday.
Permian Basin will be the top seed with either a home win against Texas A&M-Commerce or a Tarleton State loss to the Buffaloes.
Andre Hughes and Thompson gave the Hounds early hopes, combining for nine points in a game-opening 11-3 burst.
The Rams (14-11, 6-11), coached by Portales native Cinco Boone, never got closer than four after that point, and trailed by double figures for the final 28 1/2 minutes after a Joe Clarke 3-pointer made it 23-13 midway through the first half.
Hughes had 12 points for the Greyhounds, who are on their first five-game LSC winning streak since 2004’s six-game run and led by as many as 21 with 7:49 to play. Lewis added 11, and five other Greyhounds chipped in at least eight points in a balanced effort.
The Rams had four players in double figures, with both Prince Foster and Devonte Pratt scoring 15. Pratt also added a game-high eight rebounds.
Angelo State still controls its own fate, thanks to a season sweep over Midwestern State. With a win in Silver City on Saturday, the Rams would grab one of the last two playoff spots — seventh if ENMU loses Saturday, eighth if ENMU wins.
