SAN ANGELO - The Angelo State basketball team dropped its first game of a two-game road swing in New Mexico Thursday night, falling 82-66 to Eastern New Mexico in Portales.
The Rams fell to 14-11 on the season with the loss and now have a 6-11 record in conference play. ASU will need a win on Saturday against Western New Mexico to secure a place in the Lone Star Conference tournament.
As a team, Angelo State shot just better than Eastern New Mexico, making 42.6 percent of their shots compared to 42.2 percent for the Greyhounds. The Rams did the majority of their scoring inside, getting 34 of their points in the paint, and 25 of the ASU points were scored by players who came off the bench.
Four Rams scored in double digits in the matchup, including DeVonte' Pratt and Prince Foster with 15 each, Brandon Williams with 13 and Chase Riley with 10. It was the ninth time this season Williams reached the double-digit scoring mark and just the third time for Riley to score at least 10 points.
Foster was also the team's leading defender with three steals on the night in a team-high 38 minutes played, and Pratt tied his season high in rebounds with a team-leading eight against ENMU.
The Greyhounds opened the game with a three-pointer and scored 11 of the game's first 14 points to jump out to an early lead. The Ram deficit was pushed to 10 with 13:32 left in the first half. A jumper and a three-pointer from Riley highlighted and 8-2 that brought the Rams back within five with 9:25 left in the half.
Eastern New Mexico went on another 10-point run to push the lead back out to double-digits with just over five minutes left in the opening half, and the Rams went into the locker room down 14 points.
The lead was pushed to 18 just two minutes into the second half, and it would remain there for nearly the rest of the game. The Greyhounds pushed the lead into the 20s on a layup from Lamarquis Thompson with 7:29 remaining, but the Rams cut it back down on a pair of Williams free throws.
With 2:10 remaining, ASU cut the deficit to the smallest it would get in the second half, as Foster hit a pair of free throws to bring the Rams within 12. ENMU hit free throws down the stretch to hold onto the lead, however, taking the game 82-66.
The Rams will play their final regular season game on Saturday, taking on Western New Mexico at 5 p.m. CST in Silver City. The game can be heard locally on 1260 KKSA with Jeremy Bryant on the call.
