PORTALES, N.M. – Fresh off the upset of 20^th-ranked West Texas A&M on Thursday, the Eastern New Mexico University men's basketball team was unable to ride the momentum of the win, falling to UTPB 85-67 on Saturday afternoon at Greyhound Arena. The loss moves the 'Hounds to 8-13 on the season and 2-9 in Lone Star Conference play.
 
Defensively, the Green and Silver kept the Lone Star Conference's top-scoring offense in check for much of the afternoon, holding the Falcons to well under their season scoring average. Eastern held UTPB to below its season average in points, shooting percentage, three-point percentage and free throw percentage, but surrendered 18 offensive rebounds leading to 22 second chance points.
 
"When we had our good defensive possessions, we were very disciplined in our rules," ENMU first year head coach Tres Segler said. "In most of these games with these great Lone Star teams, what you're trying to do is take away their strengths and make them beat you with plan-b. In our good possessions, plan-B had to beat us. When we let their first line dictate the pace of the game, they were winning. I told the guys before the game if we could hold them to 80-85 points we would be in a winning position. I wasn't planning on us being unable to find a scoring rhythm. We just never found our flow offensively. That's something we have to improve going forward. I was proud of our defensive effort."
 
The Greyhounds were led offensively by junior guard Joe Clarke with 16 points on 4-of-14 shooting. Senior Javaan Mumtaz added 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting while freshman Byrale Carter strung together a good all-around performance with 10 points, two rebounds and two assists. Senior Chris Wyms dished out three assists to lead the 'Hounds while Arcaim Lallemand grabbed six rebounds in the setback. Junior Lamarquis Thompson was the fourth 'Hound in double figures with 10 points while he and Clarke each had three steals in the game.
 
"On a night where I didn't feel like anyone was in a flow, for Joe to have 16 points is awesome," Segler added. "For him to be producing like that still shows how much he's growing offensively. Having those three other guys (Mumtaz, Thompson and Carter) in double-figures really shows how balanced our offense can be. Byrale's playing really well right now. I though Javaan really shot the ball with confidence tonight. He did a lot of good things. He did some things that didn't show up in the scorebook. Shawn did some good things. He didn't score as much as he'd like to tonight. Arcaim led us in rebounding. That's a good thing because he works really hard. We have to have more collective team rebounding as a whole. We have to get our forwards going. In the games that we've played well, they have done that. I'll be looking this week to revamp the lineup and get our guys in better positions to score.
 
Eastern shot just over 40% on the afternoon, going 21-of-52 from the field. ENMU was unable to win the rebounding battle, pulling down 34 boards to UTPB's 45. The bench for the Green and Silver provided a spark on the afternoon, outscoring UTPB 28-13.
 
Eastern returns to the court on Thursday, Feb. 2, to take on Tarleton State in Stephenville, Texas. Tipoff against the Texans is slated for 6:30 p.m. For the latest news, follow @ENMUAthletics and @ENMU_Hoops on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and visit goeasternathletics.com.