PORTALES, N.M. — The Eastern New Mexico University men's basketball team saw great performances from Chaunce Hill and Lawrence Domingo Thursday, with both players recording season-high double-doubles in their team's 84-75 win over Wayland Baptist University for their home opener.
Domingo recorded 18 points and a career-high 14 rebounds on the night. Hill had an all-around amazing game, recording a career-high 17 rebounds while scoring 12 points and also recording a career-high five blocks. His 17 boards is tied for third most in a single game for ENMU (4-8) while his five blocks was tied for second in the Greyhound's history books.
Hill said, "As far as the balance on both ends of the court, my teammates just pushed me all week in practice and knowing this was our first home game, we just focused on our effort as a team. I was just doing what my team needed me to do tonight."
While Eastern only shot 37 percent from the floor, they punished the Pioneers (10-3) on the glass, outrebounding WBU 57-44. This created a lot of second and third opportunities on offense for the Greyhounds, who took advantage of the rebound margin by scoring 19 second chance points compared to WBU's four.
ENMU head coach Stott Carter said, "We have to be able to guard and we have to be able to rebound. That keeps you in games when you aren't shooting well and tonight we weren't scoring well."
Javaan Mumtaz led all scorers with 19 points, going 5-11 from the field and 2-5 from beyond the three point line. Chris Wyms made his 2015-16 season debut after missing the fall semester, scoring 17 points with nine of those points coming from the free throw line.
Perhaps not filling out the stat sheet, but none the less playing a major role in the Greyhound win, was freshman Brady Patterson, who logged 32 minutes and was assigned to the Pioneers top scorer on defense. Robert Waters came into the matchup averaging a team-high 24 points per game and was held to only 3-14 from the floor and 12 points total by Paterson. Nine of his 12 points came in the final minutes when Wayland was desperately trying to close the gap on the Hounds.
"I think Brady did a great job, he was all over him [Waters] all night. For the whole game he did great and late there, when they [Wayland] were down, he got some points but that's going to happen when a team is pressing to come back," Carter said.
The first half of the contest saw two evenly matched opponents exchange baskets, with neither team taking more than a several-point lead. Going into half time down 40-39, ENMU was struggling with turnovers (10) and was only staying in the game due to their work on the offensive glass, recording 13 offensive rebounds in the first half. Hill played a major role in that effort, recording 10 of his 17 rebounds in the first.
Opposed to the first half that saw 10 lead changes, the second only saw one and it was when the Greyhounds went on a 10-0 run coming out of the locker room to take what would turn into a 12 point lead, their largest of the contest. WBU didn't give up however, continuing to chip away at the Greyhound lead with their fast-paced, high-scoring offense.
Coming down to the final minutes of the contest, Wayland drew to within five before time started dwindled away, forcing the Pioneers to start fouling. Clutch shooting at the line by Wyms and Mumtaz only extended the Greyhound lead however, ending any chance of a comeback by Wayland.