PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico men's basketball team is preparing to open its 2018-19 campaign at the 2018 New Mexico Classic hosted by the University of New Mexico on Friday and Saturday.
The Hounds will open the tournament against Fort Lewis on Friday at 12:30 p.m. inside the Rudy Davalos Basketball Center and will then face New Mexico Highlands at 3 p.m. on Saturday inside The Pit at Dreamstyle Arena in Albuquerque, N.M.
 
SCOUTING THE SKYHAWKS
The Hounds will be challenged in their regular season opener as Fort Lewis has been tabbed to finish third in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference this season.

Last season, the Skyhawks finished with a 24-7 overall record and an 18-4 mark in RMAC play. The Skyhawks won the RMAC Regular Season Championship, but fell to Regis in the conference championship game. FLC qualified for the NCAA Division II South Central Regional Tournament, falling to Texas A&M-Commerce 78-62 in the quarterfinal round.

FLC is in the process of rebuilding this season as the Skyhawks have lost four of their top five scorers from last season to graduation. However, Fort Lewis does return one of its top performers in senior forward Marquel Beasley. The RMAC Defensive Player of the Year last year and All-RMAC Second Team performer, Beasley averaged 14.3 points per game and 6.7 rebounds per contest, while shooting a blistering 58-percent from the floor. Beasley also blocked a team-leading 42 shots as well as recorded a team-best 38 steals.

Junior forward Riley Farris is one of the team's top returning scorers after averaging 8.1 points per game and 3.2 rebounds per game off the bench last season and junior guard Alex Semadeni scored 6.7 points per game and 3.9 rebounds per contest for the Skyhawks.
 
HISTORY WITH THE SKYHAWKS
The Greyhounds lead the all-time series against Fort Lewis with a 12-10 record in the series that started back in 1938.

The Hounds will be looking at starting a winning streak as Eastern snapped a five-game losing streak to the Skyhawks with a 73-72 upset victory on a buzzer-beating three-pointer by LaMarquis Thompson at the New Mexico Classic last season. Thompson scored 23 points for the Hounds in that contest while senior Jamani Pierce recorded 21 points and Devin Pullum contributed 10 off the bench.
 
SCOUTING THE COWBOYS
The New Mexico Highlands Cowboys enter the New Mexico Classic as the projected No. 10 team in the RMAC.

During the 2017-18 campaign, NMHU finished with a 15-13 overall record and a 10-12 record in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play, finishing 10^th in the league.

The Cowboys lost their top three scorers from last year's squad that averaged 77.93 points per game, but bring back senior guard/forward Jordan Jones, who scored 10.5 points per game, converting on 46-percent of his shots from the floor and 85-percent of his free throw attempts.

Sophomore guard D.J. Bustos is expected to be a bigger contributor for Highlands this season after averaging 7.1 points per game in 28 games and 20 starts during his freshman campaign.
 
HISTORY WITH THE COWBOYS
Competing in the 107^th meeting all-time between the two programs in the series that dates back to 1935, Eastern has the 69-37 edge over the Cowboys.
The Hounds have won the last two games against NMHU, which includes a 66-61 victory over the Cowboys in last year's meeting at The New Mexico Classic last season.
Lallemand led the Hounds, nearly picking up a double-double with 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field and 5-of-5 from the charity stripe to go with a team-leading nine rebounds. Nick Brown also chipped in 12 points in that contest while Maurice Coleman added 10 points and six boards.
 
EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS
The Hounds were picked to finish seventh in the Lone Star Conference in this season's preseason poll.

Eastern is coming off an eighth-place finish in the LSC last season after picking up a dramatic 58-56 victory at Texas A&M-Kingsville in the final game of the regular season to lock up a spot in the LSC Tournament. The Hounds had to rally late in that game Thompson tied the game up at 56 on a jumper with 52 seconds remaining while drawing a foul, giving Eastern the chance to take the lead.

The Hounds got the offensive rebound on the missed free throw and Maurice Coleman gave ENMU the lead on a jumper in the paint with 27 seconds left. On the Javelinas final chance to tie, Arcaim Lallemand came up with a crucial defensive block with five seconds remaining, sealing the victory for the Greyhounds.

Eastern's season came to an end last season in the first round of the conference tournament as the Hounds fell 86-70 to the LSC and South Central Regional champion West Texas A&M. ENMU ended the season with an 11-17 record and a 6-12 mark in LSC play.
 
SEGLER SPOTLIGHT
Greyhounds head coach Tres Segler enters his third season with the ENMU men's basketball program and has made tremendous strides in his previous two seasons with the Hounds. In his first season with the program, Segler's squad finished with a 13-15 record and a 7-11 mark in conference play as the team vastly improved from the season before, picking up seven more wins overall and five more wins in conference play. Despite losing two more games last season, the Hounds were incredibly competitive in many of their losses, only losing by four points or less in six games last season.
 
RETURNING ROSTER
The Hounds return some key pieces from last year's squad, including All-LSC Honorable Mention senior guard Zach Parker. Leading the team last season, Parker was the Hounds top scorer at 11.9 points per game and was the team's best free throw shooter, knocking down 41-of-51 (80-percent) of his attempts from the charity stripe. Parker eclipsed the 20-point mark on five occasions, scoring a season-high 25 points in a 99-89 loss to Dixie State and ended the season with a 21-point effort against West Texas A&M in the LSC Quarterfinals.

Pullum, the sophomore guard from Little Elm, Texas also returns after making some big contributions for the Hounds during his freshman campaign. Despite coming off the bench for the Hounds all season, Pullum was third-best scorer on the team, averaging 9.8 points per contest on 40-percent shooting from the floor and 38-percent from the three-point arc. Pullum scored more than 20 points three times last season, notching a season-high 24 points in a hard-fought 68-67 loss at Tarleton State.
The Hounds also return two of their regular starters in Coleman and Lallemand, who started in 28 and 27 games and averaged 8.6 and 7.6 points per game respectively.
 
FRESH FACES
Even though the Hounds bring back a lot of talent from last year's squad, Eastern is expecting to get some big contributions from many of their newcomers this season.

Junior forward Darius Sawyer is expected to make a big impact for the Hounds after transferring in from ASA-Miami. Last season with the Silver Storm, Sawyer averaged 13.5 points per game on a 47 percent field goal percentage.

A senior forward from New City, N.Y., Chukuka Emili will make his debut for the Hounds this weekend after transferring in from NCAA Division I Houston Baptist. Last year for the Huskies, Emili averaged 1.8 points per game in 23 games. He scored a season-high eight points in a 100-65 win over Barclay (Kan.).

Deng Kuany, a junior forward from Melbourne, Australia comes to Eastern New Mexico from Miles Community College in Montana. During the 2016-17 season, Kuany appeared in 20 games and made 19 starts, averaging 11.7 points in 28.7 minutes per game for the Pioneers.

Coming over from the Pima Community College Aztecs program, junior guard Isaiah Murphy is a sharp shooter that the Hounds are expecting some big contributions from. Murphy last season averaged 15.9 points per game for the Aztecs, converting on 50 percent of his field goal attempts and was the team's top three-point shooter, knocking down 39 percent of his three-point attempts.