SILVER CITY, N.M. – Eastern New Mexico locked in the number four seed as they earned a 106-77 win over in-state foe Western New Mexico Saturday afternoon.

"I'm proud of the way our guys responded in the second half after being down early and fighting through some foul trouble," said head coach Brent Owen after the win. "We made the decision to go zone with about ten minutes left and I believe we outscored them by 23 points after that moment."

The change helped the Greyhounds immensely in a contest that saw them trailing by as many as eight points at two different points.

WNMU saw its leading scorer Contaviaus Seales finish with 30 points on 23 shot attempts. His effort was not good enough as ENMU saw balanced scoring from several key players.

Greg Johnson has proven to be on a roll in 2023-24 and today's game was no different. The Arkansas native scored 32 points on just 17 field goal attempts. He added three assists and four rebounds.

"Greg Johnson is playing some incredible basketball with another 30-point game and Tre'Von Love has really stepped up on the offensive end recently which is giving us a burst heading into tournament play," remarked Owen on two of his guards.

Johnson has earned LSC offensive player of the week twice this season and was the team's leading scorer over both wins versus the Mustangs this week. Today, he was hot from behind the arc as he went 5-for-8 from that distance.

"It was important to win because we needed this momentum going into the tournament," said Johnson after the victory. "We won because we started to defend better in the second half."

ENMU limited the home team to just nine field goals on 35 shot attempts in the second half. The 25.71% shooting from the floor resulted in just 34 points and proved too difficult to overcome for Western New Mexico Saturday.

Love was fantastic for Eastern New Mexico off the bench. The St. Louis, Mo. native managed to sink 4-of-6 from deep range and tallied 15 points along with three rebounds.

Seniors Lyron Bennett and Jahcoree Ealy scored in double figures. Bennett added 13 points and Ealy tallied 11 total. Sophomore Jose Murillo almost had a double-double with nine points and ten rebounds.

Eastern continued to stay strong in the post as they scored 46 points in the paint. They also managed to play strong defensively to lead to quick, easy baskets. That resulted in 21 points off turnovers in the game.

The Greyhounds posted a century-mark score for the eleventh time this season, including nine of those coming against Lone Star Conference teams.

It will be a quick turnaround for the Hounds as they now look forward to a quarterfinal contest against Angelo State. The 4/5 matchup will tip at 8:30 p.m. at the Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas.

ENMU fell to Angelo State, 88-85, on the road after nearly coming back from an 18-point deficit. They followed that up with a 100-79 dominating win at home against the Rams. Most notably in that game, Eastern played without their leading scorer Jahcoree Ealy.

Tickets for session two to the tournament are now available for $18 for adult and $12 for students. You can purchase them here.

The winner of Thursday's contest will play Saturday in the semifinals.