Hodnett and Hounds off to regionals

Former Ram Hodnett along for ENMU’s ride to the dance

Eastern New Mexico men’s basketball team is going dancing for a third time in program history in the NCAA tournament.

ENMU (22-9), with former Rio Rancho High School standout Junior Hodnett (Class of 2021) on its roster as a redshirt sophomore, is playing in the postseason event for the first time since 2004, headed to the South Central Regional hosted by West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas.

The Greyhounds won the Lone Star Conference championship Sunday after a 91-88 victory over Lubbock Christian. Hodnett played 13 minutes in that game, scoring 2 points.

Five Lone Star Conference teams make up the group of eight teams invited to the regional. In addition to ENMU, which received the 6 seed, the field includes Fort Lewis, Colorado Mesa, Dallas Baptist University, Colorado School of Mines, Lubbock Christian, Angelo State and host West Texas A&M.

Eastern’s matchup with third-seeded Colorado Mesa will take place Saturday at 11 a.m. MDT. The Greyhounds are 3-1 against the Mavericks all-time, with wins coming in 1983, 1984 and 2015. The only loss was in 1993.

The Hounds are coming off their first conference tournament championship since 1993.

ENMU is second in the nation, connecting on 42.1% of shots from behind the arc. They are eighth among DII programs putting up an impressive 90.4 points per contest, and eclipsed the 90+ threshold in seven straight games.

CMU is coming off a loss in the RMAC championship game to Fort Lewis. The higher-seeded program leads the nation in effective field goal percentage (.597) and is third in three-point makes per game (11.6