Eastern New Mexico Men's Basketball | 02.11.2016 | David Norton | Photo by Mati Tharp

LAWTON, OKLA. — The Eastern New Mexico men's basketball team took the Lone Star Conferences best down to the final seconds of play in Thursday's matchup with Cameron University, but in the end would find themselves on the losing end of the 72-66 contest.

Three Greyhounds (6-16, 2-8 LSC) had three players in double digits, led by Javaan Mumtaz with 12 points, followed by Lawrence Domingo and Ladarius Stewart who had 11 each.  Three Eastern players had seven rebounds apiece, with Arcaim Lallemand joining Mumtaz and Domingo.

The Aggies (15-8, 8-3 LSC) were led by Deondre Ray with 19 points.  Ray recorded a double-double pulling down another game-high with his 11 rebounds.

While the Hounds found themselves down by double digits nearing the end of the first half, despite jumping out to the early lead, the managed to fight their way back and draw to within one point heading into the locker room, 31-30.  Domingo ended up missing most all of the first half due to foul trouble, picking up two fouls in the opening two minutes. 

Head coach Stott Carter said, "There is a reason they are first place, they are a great team and a really good team at home.  Bottom line is they did just a little more than us.  But I'm proud of our defensive effort holding them to 39 percent; I'm very happy with that overall.  Just have to tip your hat to them, our guys played with a lot of effort but it wasn't quite enough tonight."

The two teams shot an almost identical percentage from the field, with the Hounds hitting 37 percent of their field goals while the Aggies went for 39 percent.  The Greyhounds won the turnover battle but lost the battle of the boards, with Cameron snagging 10 additional boards over the Hounds, 51-41.

Eastern will head home to Portales to prepare for their matchup with the LSC preseason No. 1 Midwestern State Mustangs.  Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday.