PORTALES, NM - Eastern New Mexico men's basketball are on the road to Texas where they will matchup against two Lone Star Conference teams. Thursday night the Hounds will face Texas A&M-International at 6:30 p.m. Saturday night the Hounds will face Texas A&M-Kingsville at 3:00 p.m.

LAST WEEK 
The Greyhounds fought hard in two Lone Star Conference contests this past week, falling to Lubbock Christian and Angelo State. A 62-60 loss at the hands of Lubbock Christian on Thursday night proved to be a close battle as the game featured six lead changes and eight ties over the course of 40 minutes of action. The Hounds led 53-52 with 5:44 remaining in the contest, but went cold on the offensive side of the floor, failing to record a field goal for the remainder of the contest. Eastern returned to the court Saturday afternoon against Angelo State, in a game in which both squads put up a strong defensive effort inside Greyhound Arena. The Hounds out-rebounded the Ram 36-to-32 and forced 20 turnovers despite the 74-70 loss.  

As a team, the Hounds finished last week shooting 89.7 percent from the free-throw line connecting on 26-for-29 free-throws. Senior Deng Kuany assisted in the teams 30 rebounds against Lubbock Christian with his second highest rebounding total of the year with eight boards. Junior Brandon Meadows recorded six points, five rebounds, two steals and also blocked two shots against Lubbock Christian. The Hound bench recorded over half of the team's points against the Chaps, totaling 33 for the evening.

Junior Jose Serrano led the Hounds in scoring for both games, recording 17 against Lubbock Christian and 19 against Angelo State. Serrano also posted a career high six assists and ended the night with five rebounds against Angelo State. Junior Garrick Sherrod recorded a season high 26 minutes of playing time against Angelo State and consistently found ways to get to the free throw line, going 9-for-9 for the contest.

SCOUTING THE COMPETITION

Texas A&M-International
TAMI is currently ranked third in the in the Lone Star Conference in defensive rebounding despite sporting a conference record of 0-11 so far this season. In their 17 games played the Dustdevils have recorded 556 defensive rebounds, averaging 32.7 per game. Head coach Joel Taylor enters his second year with TAMI and has added nine new players to the roster including senior forward Caleb Highely.

Highley is currently leading the Dustdevils in scoring with an average of 13.3 points a game. Highley recorded 20 or more points three different occasions this season with a career high 26 against Western New Mexico. Highely is currently ranked in the top ten in the Lone Star Conference for his field goal percentage of .516. Returning sophomore forward Tom Higgins posted a season and career high 17 rebounds against Texas A&M-Commerce. Higgins is averaging 5.9 rebounds a game and has recorded over 100 rebounds this season. 

Thursday night's meeting with the Greyhounds will be just the fourth ever meeting between the two programs as Texas A&M International has secured wins in three out of those four contests.

Texas A&M-Kingsville
Texas A&M-Kingsville enters the weekend ranked sixth in this week's D2CCA South Central Regional Poll and are winners of three out of their last four contest.  The Javelinas are currently undefeated at home with a record of 8-0 inside the Gil E. Steinke Physical Education Center. Head coach Jonny Estelle brings back 11 returners form last year's roster to make up a veteran roster that currently ranks fourth in the LSC in scoring defense (67.5 ppg) and second in rebounding margin (4.4).

Rason Thomas leads the Javelinas averaging 14.3 ppg and has recorded over 20 points in each of the last two contests. The senior from Houston, Texas is in his second year with Kingsville after a two year stint at Coastal Bend College. Another leader for TAMK is Tre Flowers. The junior guard is averaging 11.9 points a game and is shooting .810 percent from the free-throw line making 17-for-21 this season.  


SHERROD HITS NUMBER ONE 
After his performance on the free-throw line this past week, Garrick Sherrod has moved up to the number one spot in the Lone Star Conference for his .840 free-throw percentage. This past week Sherrod knocked down all of his free-throw attempts, making it the fifth game he has been perfect from the line. So far this season Sherrod has connected on 42-for-50 from the charity stripe. 

KNOCKING DOWN FREE-THROWS
The Hounds took the number five spot in the LSC in free throw percentage with the help of Sherrod and Serrano, who went 1.000 from the stripe this past week. As a team, the Hounds are shooting a 72.2 from the line averaging 17.7 free-throws per game. Six Hounds are shooting 70.0 percent or higher with freshman Nicolas Matheus leading with a 100% from the line. Junior Mathew Mazique comes in second connecting on 13-for-14 free-throws for a 92.9 clip. The team's performance against Angelo State was the fifth-best free throw shooting percentage of all-time for the Hounds, as the squad made 92.3 percent (12-of-13) of shots from the line, the fifth bets mark in Greyhound basketball history.

NOTABLE PERFORMANCES 
Serrano led the Hounds in scoring last week posting 17 points against Lubbock Christian and 19 against Angelo State. Serrano had one of his best games of the season against Angelo State where he recorded six assists, five rebounds, and one steal. Sophomore Devin Pullum continues to lead the Hounds with his 13.6 scoring average calculating 204 points so far this season. Pullum has scored over 20 points in four contests this season. 

Junior Yosnier Cobas continues to hold the top spot among the Hounds in rebounding with an average of 5.5 rebounds a game with a total of 83 this season.  Junior Ibn Zaid continues to be a key member of the Hound offense. The junior guard is averaging 6.0 points per game and has recorded 23 assists, 12 steals, and 33 rebounds so this season. 

A LOOK AT THE STANDINGS
 Last week's losses were a tough hit for the Hounds as they fell to a 5-10 overall and 5-5 in Lone Star Conference play. Currently the Hounds are ranked fourth within their division with wins over UT Permian Basin and Western New Mexico. The Hounds will play in-divisional opponents UT Permian Basin, Western New Mexico, Lubbock Christian and Angelo State one more time this season. Leading the Divisions are West Texas A&M, St. Edward's, and Texas A&M-Commerce.

This week the Hounds will play two LSC teams that are members of Division II, Texas A&M-Kingsville and Texas A&M-International. Texas A&M-Kingsville is ranked third in their division with nine conference wins.