Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
ENMU men 3-1 with win at Western, loss to Falcons
SILVER CITY — With a lot of Chukuka Emili, and a little bit of luck at the free throw line, the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds escaped Western New Mexico Thursday night with an 80-78 win and the team’s first 3-0 Lone Star Conference start in 13 years.
The Greyhounds, however, couldn’t keep the perfect LSC season going, falling behind early in a 95-81 loss Saturday at Texas Permian-Basin.
Emili, a senior transfer from Division-I Houston Baptist, had plenty of highlights with 19 points and 12 rebounds against the Mustangs, and his biggest lowlight didn’t end up biting the Greyhounds.
Up 80-77, Emili was called for a foul with one second left on Jon-Reese Woodson’s desperation half-court heave. He went to the line for three free throws to potentially force overtime, but the second one rimmed out and the Mustangs (3-6, 0-2) couldn’t get a putback attempt on the miss of the third free throw.
Senior guard Maurice Coleman scored six of his 14 points in the final two minutes, and Devin Pullum scored 13 points while going a perfect 2-of-2 from beyond the arc.
The Mustangs had five in double figures, led by CJ Vanbeekum’s 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting. Senior Willie McCray, a Clovis High grad, had six points on a pair of 3-pointers.
Saturday — The host Falcons never trailed after starting the game on a 6-0 run, and pushed the lead as high as 23 in the first half.
The Greyhounds got the game even early, and pulled to 14-12 on a Pullum 3-pointer with 14:19 left, but shot 1-of-7 during an 11-2 stretch featuring a back-to-back Kyree Elder layups.
Xavier Ledet scored 20 points to lead four in double figures for the Falcons (9-4, 2-1). Isaiah Hammons had 17 points, Jacob Ledoux 15 and Elder 14 for Texas-Permian Basin.
Ledet also had eight boards to lead the Falcons, who head on the road to play Midwestern State on Thursday.
Emili was again the Greyhound leader in points and rebounds, with 19 and 8.
Zach Parker had 12 points for the Greyounds, while Darius Sawyer and Nick Brown each had 11.
The Greyhounds have a pair of road LSC contests this week — Thursday at Angelo State and Saturday at Texas A&M-Kingsville — before a three-game homestand at Greyhound Arena that starts Jan. 17 against Tarleton State.
