Buffs stand strong against ENMU men

PORTALES - As one would expect of the No. 16 team in Division II, West Texas A&M's men have a pretty good chance to win if everybody on the Buffalo roster just plays an average game.

But when one of the Buffaloes has a highlight game, the paths to a Lone Star Conference upset of WT quickly become slim and none.

The former is what happened with Ryan Quaid, and the latter is what happened to Eastern New Mexico, which battled all night but could never make headway in a 74-69 Buffalo victory Tuesday at Greyhound Arena.

Quad scored 30 points, double his season average, to lead three in double figures for the Buffaloes (19-3, 8-1 LSC), who never trailed and turned the ball over just eight times to keep the Greyhounds from building any momentum.

"You're going to make mistakes, but you want to limit them," West Texas A&M coach Tom Brown said. "Eastern was tough on the boards - well, a lot of teams are; we're not very big. We've got to take care of the ball and knock down shots."

That was the case with Quaid, who went 12-of-22 from the field with two assists to somewhat cancel out his two turnovers in the post.

"He was huge," Brown said of Quaid. "He really took it upon himself to play a good game down low and find guys out of the double team. If you double him, he'll find open shooters."

The Greyhounds were without the services of Darius Sawyer due to a foot injury and Deng Kuany, serving a suspension for his role in an altercation that left the Greyhounds' 4-on-5 for much of Saturday against Texas A&M-Commerce. That meant few defensive options against Quaid and others.

"One of the best things Quaid does is he creates angles in the post to make it easy to score," ENMU coach Tres Segler said. "He takes you one direction, and makes you help too far off. Then he can spin on you. When he played well against (Chukuka Emili), I didn't have another good option. In retrospect, we should have doubled him more ... and at least made him pass it somewhere else."

The Greyhounds, led by sophomore Devin Pullum's 25 points, cut an 11-point lead as low at four in the second half but could never put together consecutive baskets while the Buffaloes were so efficient on their offensive end.

"We've been forcing turnovers on almost anybody we play," Segler said. "We pressure the ball and get gaps. To beat them playing their style, you have to force turnovers in the halfcourt. They're playing a lot of freshman, and to play true freshmen in the Lone Star and have them take care of the ball says a lot about their program."

The Greyhounds head on the road this week for LSC play, facing Cameron Thursday and Midwestern State Saturday.