Hounds capture home opener over Pioneers

Staff writer

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It’s been a while since the ENMU men’s basketball team has played at home — last season, in fact.

Staff photo: Kevin Wilson

ENMU senior forward Lawrence Domington tries to go for a reverse layup during the first half of Thursday’s game against Wayland Baptist at Greyhound Arena. The Greyhounds posted an 84-75 victory over the Pioneers, who came into the contest ranked No. 12 in the NAIA.

The Greyhounds opened the 2015-16 home slate with an 84-75 New Year’s Eve win over NAIA No. 12 Wayland Baptist at Greyhound Arena, pulling away with a strong second half.

The Hounds (4-8) were in a back-and-forth battle through the first half and had a 47-45 lead with just lover 15 minutes remaining before going on their run over a 2 1/2-minute span for a 12-point margin over the Pioneers (10-3).

From there, they took the shot clock down to single digits when possible to prevent a WBU comeback.

“(Wayland Baptist) likes to score a lot of points,” ENMU coach Stott Carter said. “We don’t want to get into an up-and-down contest with them, especially as short-handed as we were.”

ENMU had lost its previous three games and were without the services of the team’s three top scorers: John Gilliam (18.4), Javandon Staves (10.7) and Ladarius Stewart (9.9). No matter, as Javaan Mumtaz (19), Lawrence Domingo (18) and Chris Wyms (17) picked up the slack.

Staff photo: Kevin Wilson

ENMU guard Chris Wyms drives down the lane against Wayland Baptist defender Ruben Lopez during the first half of Thursday’s men’s game at Greyhound Arena. Wyms, making his season debut, scored 17 points in ENMU’s 84-75 win.

Domingo, who grabbed 14 rebounds, and Chaunce Hill (12 points, 17 boards) posted double-doubles for ENMU. Hill, whose four field goals were all dunks, also had five blocked shots.

With time winding down in the half, Hill grabbed an offensive carom and slammed it home as time expired to cut Wayland’s lead to 40-38.

“It was a momentum change,” Hill said. “I knew when I got (the rebound) it was a great opportunity. During halftime coach stressed the importance of us rebounding.”

As a team, the Hounds held a 57-44 advantage on the glass and limited WBU’s top scorer, Robert Waters, to half his average with 12 points. He was one of five Pioneers to finish between 11 and 13 points.

“The game is a lot simpler than us coaches make it out to be,” Carter said. “If you guard well, rebound well and don’t turn the ball over, you’re going to put yourself in a good position to play.

“Tonight we didn’t really score the ball very well. We only shot 36 percent. When you don’t score the ball well, offensively you’ve got to really, really take care of the ball well. I felt like we did a much better job in the second half.”

In addition to Hill’s dominance in the paint, this was the first game that Wyms had played this season and made the most of his 19 minutes on the court as he scored 17 points.

“It was great to be back on the floor,” Wyms said. “Coach just wanted us to play hard for this game and execute.”

Carter was pleased that Wyms was able to finally play his first game of the season.

“Chris was out last semester, he was with us last year,” he said. “We had an opportunity to be able to bring him back. We had the scholarship room.

“One of the things here is we’re trying to get guys towards degrees. We felt like Chris did what he needed to do academically to be (on the court) and get him very close to his degree.”

The Hounds now have a week to prepare before hosting Cameron (8-5) in their 1 p.m. Lone Star Conference opener next Thursday.