PORTALES, N.M. (February 26, 2026) – With the season winding down, The University of Texas Permian Basin men's basketball team battled its third top-15 nationally-ranked team in the last four games, and the Falcons were defeated 101-75 by No. 12 Eastern New Mexico University on Thursday night. It was also UTPB's second matchup in a row against one of the two teams tied for second place in the Lone Star Conference standings.

UTPB (10-17 overall, 6-13 LSC) never led in the game, and after a corner three by Tash Lunday tied the game (16-16) for the first time since the score was 2-2, ENMU made three straight shots and went ahead 23-16 with just over 11 minutes left in the first half.

The Greyhounds ultimately made it an 11-0 run in which they shot 5-for-6 from the field and took a 27-16 lead with just over 10 minutes left in the period.

Lunday accounted for 16 of UTPB's first 26 points of the game, but it was a 39-26 deficit with under five minutes remaining in the first half.

The Greyhounds were relentless in the first half and led by 21 points (53-32) at the break. ENMU shot 19-for-31 (61.3 percent) from the field and 5-for-10 from three in the first half, and added 17 free throw attempts (10-17). The Greyhounds also had 10 steals on 12 Falcon turnovers and led 21-3 on points off turnovers, 24-10 on points in the paint, 12-1 on fastbreak points and 20-3 on bench points.

UTPB started the second half with a dunk on a backdoor cut by TJ McKenzie on a nice pass by Lunday, and quickly the Falcons trimmed their deficit to 13 points (57-44) in the first 4:15 of the period.

It was a 12-5 run to open the second half for the Falcons, with Sharrod Taylor accounting for eight of those 12 points for UTPB, which made six of its first eight shots in the period.

After a quite first half (5 points), Taylor exploded for 11 points in the first six minutes of the second half.

That was the closest the Falcons would get as a 10-0 run for ENMU made it a 25-point game (78-53) still with nearly 11 and a half minutes left to play as ENMU already surpassed the number of points UTPB would score in the game.

It was 82-55 halfway through the second half as the Greyhounds scored 29 points within the first 10 minutes of the second half.

The largest lead of the game for ENMU was 35 points (90-55) with just under seven and a half minutes left following a 12-0 run.

One bright spot for the Falcons was the free throw line as UTPB shot 19-for-20 (95.0 percent), its best free throw percentage since shooting 19-for-19 on December 3, 2022, in a 73-63 defeat vs. Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

ENMU's 59.1 shooting percentage was the fifth time in the last eight games UTPB has allowed its opponent to shoot over 55 percent. Coming into the game, Eastern led the LSC in field goal percentage (51.0).

Lunday led all players with 26 points and nine rebounds while shooting 9-for-15 from the field and 7-for-7 from the charity stripe. Taylor finished with 18 points and McKenzie had 13. Lastly, sophomore Tristan Lewis scored a season-high eight points while shooting 6-for-6 from the free throw line.

Next up, the Falcons will have a tough one in their final game of the season at West Texas A&M University on Saturday, February 28.