Hound teams seek rebound

PORTALES — Eastern New Mexico’s basketball teams, both coming off frustrating losses to Angelo State Saturday, hope they’ll find some resiliency on the other side of Texas.

The Lone Star Conference slate continues for the Greyhounds, who travel for a Thursday doubleheader at Texas A&M-International and another twin bill Saturday at Texas A&M-Kingsville.

Both teams are 5-5 in LSC play and 2-4 in division play, but they’re polar opposites in overall records with the women 11-5 and the men 5-10.

Women — Less than 48 hours after staging one of the biggest wins in program history, a 69-68 overtime defeat of defending Division II national champion Lubbock Christian, the Greyhound women found themselves on the wrong end of a 20-point Angelo State lead. A spirited effort cut the lead to a few possessions, but the 70-60 loss was a reminder there aren’t days off in the LSC.

“The girls have got to be mature enough to handle that,” ENMU coach Josh Prock said. “Every game is important. Every game is vital. I think you can go throughout the conference and see upsets. You’ve got to be ready to play every night.”

Still, Prock is confident heading into Thursday, not so much because A&M-International is struggling, but because his team has made it through this season without suffering back-to-back losses.

That’s not to say it won’t be a challenge against two struggling teams. The Dustdevils (7-10, 4-7) and Javelinas (3-10, 2-9) are battling to climb out of the LSC basement where only Texas-Tyler trails them.

“International and Kingsville are two totally opposite teams,” Prock said. “(International is) gonna fly around, press the whole game, shoot a lot of threes. Texas A&M-Kingsville is going to play more of a halfcourt game, mix it up defensively and be more methodical offensively.”

Men — The difference between 7-3 and 5-5 is a mere six points, following closes losses to Lubbock Christian and Angelo State.

There’s frustration, coach Tres Segler said, but also optimism.

“We’ve got something to prove at International,” Segler said. “It has nothing to do with them. We have to show that losing those games by a couple of points were flukes and with wins in those games we’d be top four or five.”

Segler said the Dustdevils, last in LSC play at 0-11 and 2-15 overall, have more talent than the individual record indicates.

Regarding Saturday, Segler feels the Javelinas are as good as their 9-2 LSC record indicates, and that their season illustrates the importance of winning the one-possession games. The Javelinas are 6-0 in games decided by six or less, with three of those games decided by a single point. The Greyhounds are 2-6 in that category.

“Coach (Johnny) Estelle could come coach our team today and I could go coach his team today, and there wouldn’t be much drop-off,” Segler said. “He knows how to motivate, he knows how to push buttons.

“It’s amazing how many games they’ve won by one point, by two points, by a buzzer beater. The games we’ve not been able to get, they’ve been able to win.”

Notes: This will be the first time Portales native Michael Madrid goes against ENMU as a head coach. Madrid, in his first season with Texas A&M-Kingsville, won’t see a Portales homecoming until the 2020-21 season due to the single-game scheduling with non-division opponents. He is one of two Portales High graduates working as an LSC head basketball coach, along with Cinco Boone for Angelo State’s men ... Two Greyhounds are leading the league in statistical categories. Senior guard Garrick Sherrod leads the LSC men in free-throw percentage at 84%, while Alivia Lewis is first among LSC women in rebounds at 9.3 per game. Sherrod is 20th in the LSC in total attempts, shooting 42-of-50. Texas-Permian Basin’s Pat Dembley is the league’s James Harden, with 129 makes on 158 attempts. Sophomore guard Zamore Cox is second in steals and fifth in minutes played.