PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico men's basketball team matched their previous best win streak of the season with their fourth straight win on Thursday night, hanging on down the stretch to defeat Texas A&M-Kingsville by a final score of 76-72.

The fourth straight victory for the Hounds moves them into a tie for fourth place in the Lone Star Conference standings and also ensures that the Hounds will qualify for the LSC Post-Season Tournament on March 7-10. Sophomore Devin Pullum hit a huge bucket with just 18 seconds remaining on the clock in a game sponsored by U.S. Bank to increase the Hound two-point lead to four points at 72-68, an advantage that they would hold onto the remainder of the contest.

Eastern New Mexico led by nine points with just under five minutes remaining, but saw Texas A&M-Kingsville claw back into the game in the final minutes and worked the deficit back to within one point at 69-68 with just over two minutes remaining on the clock. Senior Chukuka Emili drew a foul on the ensuing possession and knocked down one of two free-throw makes prior to the Hound defense making four consecutive stops before Pullum finally got a shot to go down with 18 seconds left.

A costly foul on Emili after a missed free throw from the Javelinas with 11 seconds left sent Kingsville to the free-throw line with a chance to make it a one possession ball game after senior Nick Brown made one-of-two free throws on his trip to the line right after a missed three-point attempt for the Javelinas. Texas A&M-Kingsville made both free throw attempts after the Emili foul, narrowing the Greyhound advantage to just 74-72 with two seconds remaining on the clock.

Eastern successfully in-bounded the ball and set the stage for senior Maurice Coleman to end the game with two made free throws to bring the score to a 76-72 final.

The Hounds forced 20 turnovers throughout the contest in a game in which the score at halftime was just 37-36 in favor of the Greyhounds. Eastern turned those turnovers into 26 points and also recorded 20 fast-break points.

Brown led the way for Eastern New Mexico with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field, while Emili continued his strong offensive play with 15 points of his own. Emili also recorded a team-high six rebounds and had strong assistance under the rim from his running mate Darius Sawyer, who served as the other Hound to reach double-digit scoring with 11 points of his own.  

Eastern New Mexico will look to close out their 2019 home schedule on Saturday afternoon against Angelo State looking to secure a season-high fifth straight win and move above .500 overall for the first time all season. That game is scheduled for a 4 p.m. tip-off and will feature a pre-game ceremony to honor the 2019 senior class of Nick Brown, Zach Parker, Chukuka Emili, Arcaim Lallemand and Maurice Coleman.