Greyhound men pull upset of No. 22 Lions

PORTALES — Eastern New Mexico was expected to have a physical, "NFL-hitting" battle against Texas A&M-Commerce in Saturday's Lone Star Conference men's basketball showdown, according to Greyhounds coach Tres Segler.

In the end, ENMU won the war, as clutch 3-point shooting proved to be the difference in an 85-81 overtime victory over the 22nd-ranked Lions.

"Lamarquis Thompson had a tough defensive matchup, he guarded the (Willie) Rooks kid. Rooks hit a mean 3 in the corner and L.A. kinda got down on himself, I took him out and gave him a break," Segler said.

"I gave him a chance to regroup and he came back in and I wanted to go back to L.A. so that he could get it back. I have faith in him in those moments, the whole team was asking for the play where he was gonna shoot it, and sure enough, he buried it."

ENMU (10-12, 5-8 LSC) and Commerce (17-5, 9-4) exchanged baskets back and forth in the opening minutes of overtime, before Rooks hit a jumper with 2:10 left to go ahead, 75-73. Thompson answered with a corner 3 to put the Hounds ahead, before Jamani Pierce rebounded Reggie Reid's missed jumper with 35 seconds left to play.

The Greyhounds called a timeout and 10 seconds later, Nick Brown hit a corner trey of his own to extend the ENMU advantage to 79-75. A pair of Pierce free throws made it a six-point game, but then Reid somehow sank a running 3 over two defenders to cut the lead in half.

Coleman then made his free throws to extend it to five, but Rooks hit yet another 3. At that point, however, just three seconds remained, and Coleman made two more clutch foul shots to finish it off for his Greyhounds.

"They did a really good job. Coach Segler's got those guys playing really hard and well right now," Commerce coach Jaret Von Rosen said. "They just made a couple more plays and they were able to get stops on our shots."

For the Greyhounds, the first half was at times more of a struggle. Eastern shot just 32.3 percent from the field, and could not manage to stop open looks for the Lions underneath.

ENMU, up by three at the break, slowly began to force the Lions out on the perimeter in the second half. Segler credited that to Arcaim Lallemand and Isaac Maldonado.

However, the Lions went from 2-for-11 from downtown in the first half, to 6-for-13 in the second half, as Rooks buried a trey with 53 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 66-66. Moments later, at 69-all, Eastern got a last shot opportunity but came up short with a Shawn Shelton missed jumper inside.

No worries, as Eastern managed to score 16 points in the extra session. The Hounds, who will head to Western New Mexico on Tuesday, had previously struggled against marquee LSC teams earlier in the year, but have now produced back-to-back signature wins this week.

"We talk about urgency all the time. As a man, you have to be able to increase that within your own personality, to take advantage of moments and seize opportunities," Segler explained.

"That's what we saw that as. Both of these teams are quality teams, they're gonna continue to win. We're in that middle group right now and you gotta separate yourself. I'm hoping this win against Commerce could be a tie-breaker win in terms of who gets into the tournament and seeding in the tournament. Last year, we lost (a playoff berth) on a tie-breaker. We've been talking all year about a marquee win, and I think that was it tonight."