Hounds drop contest at Tarleton

STEPHENVILLE, Texas — The Eastern New Mexico University men's basketball team entered Wednesday's game at Tarleton State with a losing streak in Stephenville that dates back to Bill Clinton's first presidential term.

They'll have to wait another year to try and break the dry spell as Chuck Guy scored 21 points and De'Andre Upchurch added 18 in Tarleton State's 71-58 Lone Star Conference win.

With their ninth win in their last 11 games, the Texans (17-8, 10-7 LSC) earned the third seed in next week's conference postseason tournament.

Junior Rodney Blackmon scored 23 points and Rafael Love added 17 points and six rebounds for the Hounds (11-14, 8-9), who have already clinched a postseason berth. ENMU entered the game in fifth place in the LSC.

The Greyhounds took the lead early, eventually moving out to a 19-11 edge with a little more than seven minutes to go in the first half on a Dennis Hardwell jumper and junior guard Jordan Romero's 3-pointer.

After two free throws from Blackmon with 1:08 until intermission put the Greyhounds up by four, the Texans scored the final six points of the half to go up 31-29 at the break.

A 9-2 run over a two-minute span gave the Texans a 44-36 lead, but back-to-back 3-point baskets from Blackmon and Love cut the Eastern deficit to two with a little less than 12 minutes in the game.

The Greyhounds pulled to within 54-51 less than two minutes later after a free throw from Love. That would be as close as Eastern would get the rest of the way as the Texans scored 17 of the final 24 points of the contest.