PORTALES, N.M. – Eastern New Mexico men's basketball begins 2025 with an important conference home game against (RV) Lubbock Christian. Before the Greyhounds and Chaps tipoff Friday night, please take a look at the Starting Five:
1.) Record Breakers: ENMU is coming off a nonconference victory over Navajo Tech. The matchup featured a program best 160 points scored alongside a +120 point scoring margin. The 160-40 win featured 11 different Eastern student-athletes score in double figures.
Austin Abrams led all scorers with 24 points and a team-high 11 assists.
Jaden Clarke also finished with a double-double with 23 points and ten rebounds on 11-of-11 shooting over 14 minutes of action on the floor. The third Hound with a double-double was
Treyvon Byrd with 11 points and ten assists. Eastern New Mexico shot 75-for-111 (67.6%) from the floor in the victory. ENMU finished with 130 points in the paint.
2.) Adding Austin: Stonehill College transfer
Austin Abrams played in his first game as a Greyhound during the win over NTU. Abrams shined in his Portales debut as he scored 24 points on 10-of-17 shooting. He also connected on 2-of-5 shots from behind the arc. The Maryland native posted remarkable numbers with 11 assists, eight rebounds, and seven steals. The sophomore played 23 minutes and connected on both of his free throw attempts. At his previous school, he finished the year 11-for-30 from the field.
3.) Scoring Options: Eastern New Mexico is seventh in the nation scoring 96.0 points per game. Six different players who have appeared in at least half of the team's games are posting double digit marks on average. All 15 players on the 2024-25 roster have at least one game scoring ten or more points. Senior
Mario Whitley leads the team with 14.4 points per contest. Both
Jose Murillo and
Jaden Clarke punch in 13.1 points per game. The other Greyhounds in double figures are
Treyvon Byrd (12.3 ppg),
Cougar Downing (11.5 ppg), and
Cooper Jackson (11.1 ppg). Byrd has scored ten or more points in seven-straight games.
4.) Happy New Year: The 2024 calendar year proved to be one of the most memorable for Eastern New Mexico. From January 2024 to December 2024, the Hounds went 22-11. ENMU managed to win the Lone Star Conference tournament title for the second time in program history and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the third time ever. The Greyhounds also posted three of the four best scoring marks in program history. The team scored 160 points and 133 points in wins over Navajo Tech during the 2024-25 season and finished with 125 points on senior night in a win over Western New Mexico in the 2023-24 season. During the year, the team welcomed Daven Võ as the head coach. Võ rejoined the program after previously serving the team as an assistant from 2020-23. Two student-athletes made remarkable steps in their basketball careers as they are now playing professionally overseas. Those players are
Greg Johnson (Austria) and
Jahcoree Ealy (Bulgaria).
5.) Hold Your Breath: LCU carries a 37-32 series advantage over ENMU. The last four matchups between Lubbock Christian and Eastern New Mexico have been exciting as three of those contests were decided in the closing seconds. Back in February 2023, ENMU had trailed LCU by five points with 12 seconds remaining in the game. A deep three-point make, free throw, and offensive rebound with a putback layup secured the wild rally for Eastern. The 77-76 win in Portales is the first of four-straight wins over the Chaps. During the 2023-24 season, the two programs met three times. The Greyhounds led by as many as 16 points and finished with an eight-point win over Lubbock Christian in January 2024. In February 2024, ENMU earned its first win over LCU in Lubbock since 2017. A blocked shot by Eastern with 19 seconds remaining aided the Hounds in the road win. The most recent matchup came in the championship game of the LSC tournament. Eastern New Mexico hit a buzzer-beater three pointer to claim their second ever tournament title. The shot also clinched the program's third visit to the NCAA tournament.
