CANYON, Texas –The Eastern New Mexico University men's basketball team mounted a late run, but was unable to overcome a first half cold spell in a 92-86 loss to 24th-ranked West Texas A&M. The loss moves the Greyhounds to 4-5 on the season and 0-2 in Lone Star Conference play.
 
"West Texas A&M plays a style of basketball that really forces you to be solid defensively," ENMU Head Coach Tres Segler said. "We gambled in some areas where we should've been more solid. Obviously David Chavlovich had a great night. We wanted to do a better job on him and just didn't get it done. I don't think we expected some of their other players to have the night that they had. Give credit to Tommy Gove for making some big threes in big moments."
 
Senior guard CoRnell Neal produced 20 points to lead the Greyhounds while Marquise Harris had 16. Neal also added five assists and three steals. Chris Lewis and Andre Hughes each pulled down five boards in the setback.
 
"Offensively, I was proud of how we moved the basketball. We had some guys do some good things. CoRnell Neal got in foul trouble early. Chris Wyms did a great job of playing the point and taking care of us. Arcaim Lallemand gave us great minutes tonight. He's been really solid down there defensively working hard against some bigger forwards."
 
The Greyhounds shot 45 percent in the first half and saw nine different players record points, led by junior guard Marquise Harris with seven. Shawn Shelton, Joe Clarke, Chris Wyms and Byrale Carter all had five points to contribute to the 'Hounds' offense. Eastern went 16-25 from the charity stripe, with Carter going 5-for-8 at the line. The Green and Silver were plagued by a rough stretch from the 12:47 to 1:56, ENMU went on an 0-for-7 stretch from the field.
 
"Now that we've seen that style of basketball, we have to be defensively solid for longer in possessions. At West Texas A&M, similar to Tarleton and Midwestern, you have to be able to guard for an entire shot clock. It seemd like at times tonight, my guys wanted to make a play a little bit sooner than that and that kind of hurt us."
 
In the second half, Eastern strung together a strong run down the stretch, pulling to within five with six minutes to play. At one point, the Greyhounds had made 9-of-10 field goals. CoRnell Neal posted 18 second-half points and finished with 20 points, five assists and two rebounds.
 
"All in all, I'm proud of my kids. It's so hard to say because I don't ever want to lose a game, but we really are growing and we're getting better. What my kids are seeing is the margin of victory in the Lone Star is very narrow so we have to find a way to pick that up and be mentally tougher for longer."
 
The Greyhounds return to the friendly confines of Greyhound Arena on Thursday, Dec. 8, against Texas A&M-Commerce. Tipoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. (MT). For the latest news, follow @ENMUAthletics and @ENMUwbb on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and visit goeasternathletics.com.