Hounds falter against LCU

PORTALES — With the way his team played, Eastern New Mexico University men’s coach Shawn Scanlan said it was hard to tell just how good Lubbock Christian was.

Lubbock Christian guard Max Eding scored 23 points and fellow senior Marques Baldwin added 21 in a 73-64 win over the Greyhounds in a non-conference game on Friday at Greyhound Arena.

ENMU (5-6) turned the ball over 27 times and trailed by as many as 18 in the second half in its first outing since breaking for Christmas.

“(We had) way too many turnovers under any circumstances,” Scanlan said. “A lot of those were unforced. A lot of those weren’t mistakes made because they trapped us or did something squirrelly to try to cause problems.

“They were mistakes because we weren’t seeing the other team, we weren’t seeing the game develop in front of us, and we just made a lot of inept plays on the offensive end.”

Tristan Largent led the Hounds with 17 points, but the senior guard also had a team-high six turnovers.

“We weren’t in rhythm at all, the whole game,” Largent said. “It took us a long time to get going. We started out flat-footed, and it hurt us in the long run.”

The Chaparrals began the game with a 6-0 run, thanks to a Blake Huggins 3-pointer to open the scoring.

The Hounds fought back to take a 13-8 lead as senior forward Mikal Monette scored ENMU’s first six points. Midway through the first half, the Hounds tied the game at 20-20 on a jumper from junior Justin Redman-Trotter, but Lubbock Christian went on a 17-9 run to take a 37-29 halftime lead.

The Hounds were able to cut an 18-point deficit early in the second half to seven with 4:19 left after a 3-point basket from Largent. But turnovers prevented ENMU from getting any closer.

“We were coming back and it looked pretty good for us, and then we kept turning the ball over and that hurt,” Largent said. “When you turn the ball over like that it gives the other team momentum.”

Jonah Broussard added 13 points for LCU (7-3).

Senior guard Stephen Wilson added 12 points for ENMU, and Monette finished with eight.

“There’s two ways to determine a game,” Scanlan said. “You can win or lose a game based on your best being better or not as good as the other team’s best. Or you can lose or win a game based on getting in your own way. We spent an entire game getting in our own way today.

“I don’t know if we’re a better team than Lubbock Christian is, but we’ll never know, because today we couldn’t get out of our own way. We did as much to cripple ourselves as they did to cripple us.”