Hounds roll past Justice College

For just a brief time, it looked like Justice College might be able to hang with Eastern New Mexico University's men on Saturday.

That notion ended quickly, though, and the Greyhounds rolled to an 88-45 victory over the Chandler, Ariz.-based Lions at Steve Loy Arena.

Junior guards Treyvon Byrd and Isaiah Randolph finished with 20 and 14 points, respectively, while junior guard Cooper Jackson posted 12 points and seven steals. All told, 11 of the 12 Hounds who saw action scored.

Senior forward Mario Whitley and senior guard Cougar Downing were held out due to what first-year coach Daven Vo classified as minor injuries, joking that they were "too old" to keep up with the pace of the game. Both were averaging double figures in scoring and had started all five of ENMU's previous games.

Meantime, the Lions (0-10), a fourth-year program which competes in the National Christian College Athletic Association, pulled to 12-10 seven minutes in on consecutive 3-pointers by sophomore forward Kingdom Artis.

Justice opened the contest in a 2-3 zone and it took the Hounds a while to adjust.

"It kind of slowed us down early," Vo said.

Byrd then scored six points in a span of just over 90 seconds to help the Hounds (4-2) open a 25-14 advantage. It was 28-18 on two free throws by freshman guard Alex Alfaro at the six-minute mark, and the margin was never under double figures after that.

"I got a good feel of the game early," Jackson said. "The first shot I took went down, and that gave me confidence."

ENMU forced the Lions, who were coming off a 105-56 exhibition loss at West Texas A&M the day before, into 30 turnovers resulting in 43 points.

"We want to set the tone defensively more than offensively," Jackson said. "We've got good guys on offense like Mario and Cougar."

Jackson, who easily led the team in steals with 20 coming in, tied his season high in that department in this one.

"I feel like me and Treyvon bring so much on-ball defensive pressure," he said. "We were able to get them out of their rhythm."

It was 42-25 at halftime, but Vo wasn't totally happy with what he was seeing, Jackson said. The Hounds were guilty of 15 first-half turnovers in their own right.

"Coach threatened to make us run if we kept making turnovers," Jackson said.

Apparently, it worked. The Hounds, who completely blew it open with the the first 17 points of the second stanza, were guilty of just four mechanical errors over the final 20 minutes despite subbing liberally.

"Cooper and Treyvon ignited us on defense, and that's what we want," Vo said. "Seven steals is crazy, but (Cooper) was just being himself.

"We set a goal of holding them to 20 points in the second half, and we did that. That's pretty good."

ENMU dominated the smaller Lions 55-29 on the boards, with all 12 players grabbing at least two. The Hounds led by 50 points before being outscored 7-0 over the final three minutes.

"I think there's always room to improve, especially with a team like this," Jackson said. "Everybody's still kind of new to each other.

Artis went 3-for-3 from distance and led Justice College with 11 points.

The rest of the season is in Lone Star Conference play, except for a Dec. 20 matchup against Navajo Tech at home – a team the Hounds overwhelmed 133-33 in mid-November. ENMU, which lost to WT 99-95 in overtime in its LSC lidlifter at home on Nov. 23, hosts Oklahoma Christian at 7 p.m. on Thursday and Cameron at 4 p.m. on Saturday to finish a six-game homestand.

"We'll be ready for that," Jackson said of the LSC slate. "We're excited to get into conference (play)."