PORALES, N.M. –The Eastern New Mexico University men's basketball team dropped a heart-wrenching decision to Lubbock Christian, 73-67, on Tuesday evening at Greyhound Arena in front of 312 fans. With the loss, Eastern moves to 4-8 on the season and will look to rebound against Texas Wesleyan on Saturday.
 
"Motion is the purest form in the game," ENMU Head Coach Tres Segler said. "You have to be accountable for all cuts and all methods of scoring. I thought Tyler Wayman did a great job of preparing the guys for that. In that first half, I don't know that we could've guarded motion much better than that. They made an adjustment at halftime and went to more ball screens on offense. We just didn't do a great job of hedging those ball screens. Missing those hedges allowed those guys to get to the lane and they shoot it so well that when a guy gets to the lane, you're going to give up open three point shots. We fought through that spell and climbed back in it and taking the lead late. We let some critical mistakes down the stretch kill us. We have to do a better job of finishing."
 
CoRnell Neal and Marquise Harris each tallied 17 points in the setback. Additionally, Neal added six assists and four rebounds while Harris shot 67% from the court and went 5-of-6 from beyond the arc. Chris Lewis flirted with a double-double with 12 points and eight rebounds while Javaan Mumtaz neared double figures in points with eight.
 
"CoRnell once again did a good job of distributing the basketball," Segler said on his senior point guard. "He had six assists and that's a big deal. We had 17 assists again, but also 17 turnovers. We have to limit those. I'm proud of him for moving the ball around and getting everybody involved. Offensively, Marquise did what I hoped he would do and gave us a spark early. We have to score more in the first half and for an offensively gifted team like we have, we need to score more than 26, 30, 32 points in the first half. I'm proud of those guys for getting us going early. Andre had a pretty good head cold and I thought he gave us good minutes. Mumtaz did a good job of playing the forward spot."
 
Despite coming out of the break with an eight-point edge, Eastern relinquished the lead early in the second half behind a 13-6 run by Lubbock Christian in the first three and a half minutes out of the break. Neither side was able to establish much of a cushion in the games' final period with neither side boasting a lead of more than three points until the final minute and a half.
 
With just under four and a half minutes to play, the Greyhounds held the Chaps without any points for almost a three-minute stretch, down 65-64. Eastern was unable to find the bottom of the net, however, ending the game on a 1-for-10 stretch from the field, with the lone bucket coming on a Lamarquis Thompson three with 32 seconds to play to cut the deficit to three before the 'Hounds had to resort to fouling to extend the game.
 
"As a new team together, we're still trying to figure out down the stretch of who we can count on to finish," Segler said. "We're seeing it as we grow, but we have to find those guys that can finish down the stretch for us. Even though it wasn't a Lone Star game, it was a Lone Star atmosphere as far as toughness goes. We got outrebounded in the second half and that's unacceptable and is a big part of the loss. We'll look at it on film and find a way to get better at those things. We'll work on some things in practice and try and recreate that game feel. I think once we do that, we've proven that we're right there for a successful run."
 
The Greyhounds host Texas Wesleyan on Saturday, Dec. 17, at Greyhound Arena. Tipoff is slated for 3 p.m. (MT). For the latest news, follow @ENMUAthletics and @ENMU_Hoops on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and visit goeasternathletics.com.