LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico men's basketball team wrapped up its second exhibition contest of the season with a 92-65 loss at NCAA Division I New Mexico State on Wednesday night.
It was the Hounds second exhibition game against a Division I opponent in a three-day span as Eastern entered the game after coming off a hard-fought 66-59 loss at Texas-El Paso on Monday.
Early in the first half, the Hounds were able to contest the Aggies, as three-pointers by Zach Parker, Maurice Coleman, and Nick Brown as well as a Chukuka Emili jumper in the paint kept ENMU within one at 12-11 with 14:55 to go.
Over the next 6:47, NMSU was able to gather some breathing room from the Hounds by stringing together a 19-2 run to grab the 18-point advantage at 31-13. Eastern managed to dig into the deficit, trimming the Aggies lead to 13 on a pair of Garrick Sherrod free throws to set the score at 42-29 with 1:55 left until the half. However, the Aggies closed out the half with nine unanswered points to take a 51-29 edge into the break.
The Greyhounds struggled from the floor in the opening half, only converting on 8-of-24 (33-percent) from the floor, but the Hounds performed well from the three-point arc by making 5-of-11 (46-percent) attempts and knocked down 8-of-9 (89-percent) from the free throw line.
The offense was sharper for ENMU in the second half, as the Hounds converted on 12-of-25 (48-percent) of their shots and went 6-of-12 from three-point range.
Despite a solid shooting performance from Eastern, the Hounds couldn't put together a rally as the Aggies took advantage of extra possessions. New Mexico State forced ENMU into committing 20 turnovers while NMSU committed just 11 mistakes in the contest. The Aggies were also able to utilize a strong rebounding advantage, outrebounding the Greyhounds by a 48-28 margin, including 21 offensive boards.
Junior guard Isaiah Murphy led three Greyhounds into double-figures, scoring a team-leading 13 points. Emili finished just one rebound away from a double-double, notching 12 points, 10 of which came in the second half, to go with a game-high nine rebounds and two blocks. Coleman rounded out the double-figure scorers for ENMU, scoring 12 points on 4-for-4 shooting from the field, three of those shots coming from three-point range along with a team-best six assists.
The Hounds will return to regular season play on Saturday as Eastern will travel to Topeka, Kansas for a 5 p.m. matchup with Washburn in non-conference play.