TUCSON, Ariz. – Eastern New Mexico men's basketball opened up exhibition action with a 117-54 loss to No. 10 Arizona.

"We learned a lot about being physical and being able to handle that," said head coach Daven Võ during the postgame radio show after the game. "They are a very good team, and they played great."

Newcomer Cougar Downing scored 11 points in his first game for ENMU. Downing added three rebounds in the contest.

One of the early struggles for Eastern New Mexico came with foul trouble. Forward Jose Murillo picked up two fouls over the opening four minutes of the matchup, which sent ENMU's most experienced "big" to the bench.

The Greyhounds were down 10-2 when Murillo left the floor and Arizona kept the pressure over the next four minutes increasing their lead, 23-8. Eastern kept the deficit to around the 15-point mark for a few minutes in the contest, but additional foul trouble from 6-11 newcomer Andrija Maric made it more difficult as it forced the Hounds to play smaller.

An announced crowd of 13,157 fans made the McKale Center a difficult environment to play in. ENMU struggled with shot-making and found themselves 0-for-10 from behind the arc going into the halftime intermission.

At that point, the Wildcats led 64-26.

Arizona's all-american, Caleb Love, only scored two points in the opening 20 minutes of play, but he made up for it with eight points in the second half to finish with ten points on 4-of-9 shooting.

The second half continued in the Wildcats favor with the home side shooting lights out. Arizona connected on 69% of their shots in the frame closing out a 117-54 victory

Murillo finished the night with nine points shooting 4-of-5 from the floor. The Greyhounds earned eight points from both Jaden Clarke and Cooper Jackson.

The Hounds stayed poised throughout the game and fought for rebounds on missed shots. ENMU hauled in 11 offensive rebounds and turned that into ten second chance points.

Eastern New Mexico will now prepare for their second exhibition game of the season. They will travel to Phoenix, Ariz. on October 29 to face Grand Canyon. The two squads last met in exhibition action in 2022 .