Greyhounds aim for better defense Monday night

Shawn Scanlan hopes his Eastern New Mexico University men’s basketball team has its defensive problems straightened out.

Scanlan noted the Greyhounds gave up 20 layups or dunks in a 93-81 Lone Star Conference South Division loss to rival West Texas A&M Monday at Canyon, Texas. ENMU (9-12, 3-3 South) put together a much better effort on that end of the court in Thursday’s 63-60 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville, and he hopes that continues when WT invades Greyhound Arena for a 7:30 p.m. clash on Monday.

Women’s teams meet in the opener at 5:30 p.m.

“We need to turn things around quite a bit (from the last meeting),” Scanlan said. “We gave up a lot of layups last Monday, and that’s the place where we’ll start.”

WT posts Damien Lolar and Patrick Culver scored 23 points each, combining to go 21-of-29 from the field. The Buffaloes (15-5, 4-1 before Saturday night’s home game with Kingsville) built a 16-point lead and cruised to the win with a season scoring high.

“They beat us up pretty good over there,” Scanlan said. “We need to play all 40 minutes this time rather than just 20 like we did last week.”

He said the Hounds’ effort was simply better in Thursday’s win over the Javelinas.

“The biggest thing was we were ready to play,” Scanlan said. “At Canyon, I don’t think we decided to come out and play until after halftime.”

With three of their next four at home, Monday’s game takes on significance if the Hounds hope to reach the LSC postseason tournament in early March. The top four finishers in the North and South make the tourney.

“It won’t be a season-maker or a season-breaker, but it’ll be a significant step,” Scanlan said. “If we can start off the second half (of division play) with a win, it does set a tone.”