PORTALES, N.M. – For the first time since the 2017-18 season, Eastern New Mexico men's basketball beat a top-20 foe as the Greyhounds hit the ground running and blistered past No. 19 UT Tyler in a 68-45 victory in the Lone Star Conference home opener for ENMU.
The Patriots came into Portales as the top rebounding team in the league and the Hounds left no doubt in how they planned to execute and beat the previously undefeated visitors. Eastern snagged a season-high 53 rebounds and limited UTT to 34 despite a 40.5 rebounds per game mark.
"Coach Owen told us that we needed to protect the arena," said junior guard
Greg Johnson on the message to the team going into a matchup with a ranked opponent. "We put emphasis on rebounding all week. In every drill we made sure to block out and get the rebound."
Johnson came off the bench and scored five points and corralled four rebounds on the night.
After Eastern took an early 4-0 lead, UT Tyler snagged its only advantage of the game at 5-4 four minutes into the contest. The lead slipped away fourteen seconds later as grad transfer guard
Eze Dike made a quick layup to put his team up.
The Patriots tied the match at 12 points apiece off a three-point basket from Barnell Davis. At this point, head coach
Brent Owen made a quick substitution and the Greyhounds went on an 18-0 run to push the lead to 30-12. The wild rally included three shots from behind the arc and a statement dunk from freshman
Jose Murillo.
ENMU went into the intermission with a 37-20 mark.
"One thing we talked about the whole week was winning time," said head coach
Brent Owen. "I thought I saw better execution, better effort, and better team chemistry."
All three of those statements were vital when it came to the "winning time" for the Greyhounds in the second half.
UT Tyler found some success defensively in the opening six minutes of the final period to pinch the Greyhound advantage to a baker's dozen. The stretch included seven points from leading scorer Davis. He finished with 18 on the night.
Back-and-forth the lead got to 13 points three different times over the next two minutes, but a three-point basket from Dike and a fastbreak bucket from
Jahcoree Ealy helped ENMU hold onto the healthy lead.
The final focus for Owen and his team came down to the final five minutes of the game. The Patriots only had three points during that span to close out the matchup.
"We played a really quality opponent. When you do hard things and accomplish hard goals, it's a lot of fun," said Owen. "I'm really proud of the effort tonight."
Dike paced Eastern with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting. He also hit three shots from behind the arc and dished out four assists.
His teammate
Jahcoree Ealy hit almost every shot he took in the win as he went 6-of-7 from the floor and finished the night with 13 points and two rebounds off the bench.
As a team, ENMU scored 28 of its 68 points from bench players and converted 20 turnovers into 21 points.
Coming into the game, the Patriots were 2-0 against the Hounds. The 23-point win is the first against UT Tyler for Eastern.
The Greyhounds are back in action Saturday afternoon as they take on DBU for another conference home game on Family Day. All kids who came to the Youth Day game received a ticket for Saturday's game and are encouraged to come and support the Hounds with the women's game tipping at 1 p.m. and the men's matchup following at 3 p.m. The game will be streamed on the Lone Star Conference Digital Network or can be listened to on KSEL Country 105.9 FM from the voice of ENMU Athletics Doc Elder.