Wednesday, November 12, 2014
PORTALES, N.M. — Basketball season arrives this weekend for Eastern New Mexico. The men's team travels to San Angelo, Texas to compete in the Angelo State Ed Messbarger Tip-Off Classic on Friday and Saturday. First up will be Texas A&M International on Friday with Saturday's contest coming against Oklahoma Panhandle State. Both games will begin at 4 p.m. MT in the Junell Center.
The Greyhounds are coming off their first winning season in 10 years but return only four players from the team. Junior
Lawrence Domingo is the most experience returning having played in 53 games in his first two season in Portales. He is also the top returner in points (6.7), rebounds (3.7), blocks (14), assists (11), steals (11), field goal percentage (55.6) and minutes played (17.9).
Also back from last year are senior
Michael Randle, junior
Deyton De La Cerda and sophomore
Joe Solis. Senior
Jordan Awoye was on the 2012-13 team and returns after sitting out last season.
Texas A&M International is the defending Heartland Conference Tournament champions and competed in the South Central Regional Tournament. They were picked third in the league's preseason poll behind Arkansas-Fort Smith and St. Mary's.
Like ENMU, only four players return for the Dustdevils. Vadal Faniel leads all returners with 10.5 ppg, 6.4 rpg and 1.5 spg. He also shot 55.3 percent from the field, 33.3 percent on three-pointers and made 71.3 percent of his free throws.
Jamie Farrie (2.9 ppg, 2.6 rpg) played in all 31 games and started two of them. Appearing in 22 games was Curtis Trotter, who scored 6.0 ppg while making 56.0 percent from the field. William Wise came off the bench for 21 contests in 2013-14. He scored 1.9 ppg and grabbed 0.8 rpg.
TAMUI leads the all-time series over the Greyhounds 2-0. Both meetings came during the 2012-13 campaign in a home-and-home matchup.
Coming off a 2-26 season with a 2-16 record in the HC, Oklahoma Panhandle State will have a brand new team this season. No one from the 2013-14 squad returns for the Aggies this season.
They have nine transfers on the 18-man roster with two being from Division II programs. C.J. Jamison transferred from Rogers State while Austin Thrash came from Northwestern Oklahoma State but neither played in the game for their respective programs.
Eastern and the Aggies have played each other 77 times before with the Greyhounds holding a 53-24 advantage. This will be the first time they have played against each other at a neutral site. ENMU has won the last two meetings and seven of the last nine.
Saturday will be the first game between the teams since Nov. 26, 2011 in Goodwell, Oklahoma. The Greyhounds came away with a 98-84 victory.
Live stats will be available for both games with links available at the top of the article and on the men's basketball schedule page.
For the latest information on Greyhound basketball, follow
@ENMUSports on Twitter and visit the official website of ENMU Athletics at GoEasternAtheltics.com.
