PORTALES, N.M. – Eastern New Mexico men's basketball is back at Steve Loy Family Foundation Arena for a midday matchup with Oklahoma Christian at 3 p.m. on December 6. Before the conference clash, please take a look at the Starting Five preview:
1.) Add More Wins: Eastern New Mexico earned their sixth-straight win on Thursday night. The 95-69 win over Cameron helped ENMU improve to 6-1 on the season and get their largest winning streak since the 2023-24 season. Five of the team's six wins have come by 13+ points. The Greyhounds rank sixth in the conference and 40th nationally with a +14.6 scoring margin. Eastern is one of 60 programs in NCAA DII with one or less losses this season. The Hounds have not started 6-1 or better through their first seven games since the 1996-97 campaign when the team won their first nine contests.
2.) Balanced Offense: ENMU shot the ball at an extremely high clip against Cameron on Thursday night. The Greyhounds connected on 37-of-66 (56.1%) of their shots while hitting nine shots from behind the arc. Four student-athletes scored in double figures on the night, and nine total players had four or more points.
Mo Austin led the charge offensively with 22 points and dished out three assists.
Cooper Jackson (17 pts),
Treyvon Byrd (14 pts), and
Austin Abrams (10 pts) all scored in double figures in the victory. One area ENMU has controlled games is their ability to score quickly. Eastern ranks third in the LSC and 26th nationally with 18.57 fastbreak points per outing.
3.) Frustrating the Opposition: Mo Austin and
Cooper Jackson lead the Lone Star Conference with 3.14 steals per game apiece. Overall, the team is third in the league with 11.3 steals per contest.
Jose Murillo ranks first in the LSC with 1.83 blocks per outing. ENMU is fourth in the conference allowing opponents to hit 41% of their shot attempts. Eastern also only allows 66.0 points per game while earning 80.6 points per game offensively. Only two programs have scored 70+ points against the Hounds. The green and silver forced 23 Aggie turnovers on Thursday night, which resulted in 30 points off turnovers.
4.) Can't Stop Mo: One player programs have had a difficult time halting production from is
Mo Austin. The sophomore guard has scored in double figures in six games this season. The Pueblo, Colo. native has posted multiple assists, blocks, and rebounds in each contest this year. Austin has a season high 25 points against Northwestern Oklahoma State. In Thursday's win over Cameron, he scored 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting and he hauled in five rebounds while adding three assists and three steals. The starting guard leads the team in points (16.4 ppg), assists (33), and steals (22).
5.) Eyeing the Eagles: Oklahoma Christian comes into Portales with a 4-2 mark. However, the program has lost two-straight games. OC holds wins over Randall, Southwestern Oklahoma State, Southwestern Christian, and Western Oregon. They hold losses against Northwest Nazarene and West Texas A&M. The Eagles average 76.8 points per game with four student-athletes averaging 12.5 points per game or higher. Jason Clark leads the program with 16.0 points per outing and he also boasts a team best 6.8 rebounds per contest. Clark is a senior from Katy, Texas who began his collegiate career at Texas A&M-Kingsville before joining the Eagles in his junior season. Another offensive weapon is Miles Gibson who is in his third season with the team. He has scored in double figures in five straight contests. One area where OC controls the game is fouls. They commit the second least in the LSC fouls per game (14.8) and attempt the fourth most amount of free throws (25.7) in the conference. Oklahoma Christian also shoots the ball fairly well as the hit 47.4% of their shots. One area they need to improve in is utilizing their bench as they score 14.83 points per contest in that department which ranks 263rd in the nation.
