PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico men's basketball team will continue their three-game home stand on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. against arch-rival West Texas A&M.

Presented by Big Valley Auto, the game will be the 107^th meeting between the two rivals dating back to 1935. Eastern New Mexico will look to bounce back following their first home loss of the season on Saturday afternoon at the hands of Texas A&M-Commerce.

The Hounds currently sit in fifth place in the Lone Star Conference standings at 4-4, but have three teams with a 3-4 or 4-3 record either ahead or below them in the standings. Eastern will have an essential bye week this weekend following the West Texas A&M game allowing those teams that haven't played as many games in conference as the Hounds the chance to catch-up, making a potential win tomorrow night even more important for Eastern New Mexico.

LAST TIME OUT
The Hounds returned home to Greyhound Arena following more than a month's worth of action on the road and provided Greyhound Nation with two games that will be remembered far beyond this weekend. The first contest saw the Hounds defeat Tarleton State for the second straight time for the first time since 1996 thanks to a Devin Pullum three-point bucket from well beyond the three-point line with just three seconds remaining on the clock.

The last-second make from Pullum capped off an Eastern New Mexico comeback late in the contest after trailing 59-51 with 8:06 remaining in the game. The Hounds led by four points with just under two minutes remaining before committing three costly fouls down the stretch that sent the Texans to the line for six total free throw opportunities.

Tarleton converted on five of those attempts, giving the Texans a 68-67 lead with 17 seconds remaining in the game, which was negated when the Hounds advanced the ball past half-court, called a timeout, and then allowed Pullum to create enough space to take the game-winning shot from right in front of his own bench with three seconds on the clock.

Greyhound Arena had little time to calm down after the events of Thursday night, as the Hounds carried that momentum over into Saturday afternoon's game against #20 Texas A&M-Commerce and jumped out to an early 24-12 lead over the Lions. Senior Chukuka Emili made his first five shot attempts for the game, totaling 11 points in just seven minutes of basketball.

A wild turn of events at the 11:57 mark of the half changed the course of the game however, as the entire Eastern New Mexico bench was ejected from the game after stepping onto the court during an altercation between Tyree Robinson from Texas A&M-Commerce and Deng Kuany of Eastern New Mexico. Although none of the players that stepped onto the court joined in or participated in any way during the altercation, per NCAA rules all members were subject to an ejection.


After the dust settled all members of the bench plus Kuany were ejected from the game, leaving just Devin Pullum, Nick Brown, Mangistu Jongkor and Isaiah Murphy left to play for the final 31 minutes of the contest. Those four Greyhounds put together an inspiring performance, scoring 74 points in 31 minutes of 4-on-5 basketball, and failed to surrender the lead until there was just 1:28 remaining on the clock in the first half.

Pullum totaled a career high 39 points throughout the game, which now stands as the most points scored in a single game by any player in the Lone Star Conference this season, while the rest of the team shot 53.8 percent (14-of-26) from the field in the second half despite having just four players on the court.

The Hounds eventually lost the contest by a final score of 112-99, but the effort displayed by Pullum, Brown, Jongkor and Murphy cannot be expressed enough.

SCOUTING THE BUFFS
After advancing all the way to the NCAA Division II Final Four last season and posting a record of 32-4, West Texas A&M has taken awhile to hit their stride this season with a variety of new faces on the court. The Buffs three losses have all come on the road to Western State, Lubbock Christian and Texas A&M-Kingsville, and have had multiple close games so far this season including two overtimes wins over Drury and Washburn.

What hasn't taken very long to return to last year's form has been the scoring tandem of Ryan Quaid and Gach Gach, who have combined for double-digit points in all but two games so far this season. Quaid ranks sixth in the LSC with an average of 15.0 points per game, while Gach has made the most amount of three-point buckets in the league with 52 on the season.  

Quaid and Gach have led a scoring offense that ranks second in conference-only play this season with an average of 84.0 points per game against LSC opposition. The Buffs fundamentally-sound defense has returned once again this year, surrendering just 73.4 points per game in conference play, giving the Buffs the highest scoring margin in the league at 10.6.

West Texas A&M also sports the best turnover margin the league at 4.50, and ranks second in the league with 31.6 defensive rebounds per game.

BATTLE OF THE LONG-BALL ARTISTS
West Texas A&M and Eastern New Mexico currently ranks first and second in conference play in average three-point buckets made per game. The Buffs lead the league with a total of 84 three-pointers in eight games against LSC competition, while the Hounds have totaled 76 in their eight games. The Hounds struggled at the beginning of the season from long range, but have shot 37.3 percent from three-point land in conference play, ranking third in the league.

DEVIN THE MAN
Devin Pullum earned his first collegiate start on Thursday night and proved exactly why the rising sophomore has shown time and time again to be one of the top young guards in the league. Pullum shot 51.6 percent (16-of-31) for the weekend while averaging 26.5 points between the two games, including a career-high 39 points on Saturday afternoon.

22 of those 39 points came in the second half of action on Saturday afternoon against Commerce. Pullum ranks fifth in the conference with 16.4 points a game in conference play and also in assists with 3.8 per game.

THE FOURSOME OF THE YEAR    
The effort displayed by Pullum, Brown, Jongkor and Murphy cannot effectively be described on paper, but some of the numbers that showed up in the box score reflecting what they accomplished on Saturday afternoon speaks to the impressiveness of those four athlete's games. The foursome kept themselves in the ballgame despite playing 4-on-5 basketball for 11 minutes of the first half and entered the halftime break tied at 53-53 with the Lions.

The four Hounds played the entire second half 5-on-4 and shot 53.8 percent (14-of-26) from the field in the half against a relentless press from the Lions and turned the ball over just seven times. They were only outrebounded by three and got to the free throw line 19 times in the second half alone, converting 14 of those attempts.