Box Score 
CORPUS CHRISTI – John Jordan drilled a game-tying three and then a go-ahead jumper in the final two minutes to lift the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's basketball team to a 71-70 victory on Tuesday at the American Bank Center. Jordan finished with 19 points and 10 assists, while Rashawn Thomas added 20 points and 10 rebounds in the victory.
Jordan scored the Islanders' final nine points, and he and Thomas combined to score the final 20 for the home squad. Jordan closed the game going 4-for-5 from the field in the final 6:03 after starting the game 2-for-9 from the floor.
The Islanders improved to 12-9 on the season and 7-2 in Southland play, while Incarnate Word fell to 12-6 overall and 4-4 in the league. Brandon Pye added 12 points in the win for the victors.
The Cardinals had all five starters in double figures, but got no points from their bench. Mitchell Badillo led the way with 17 points and five assists, while Denzel Livingston and Traylin Farris each scored 15.
Late in the contest, with the Cardinals holding a 65-60 lead after a Badillo layup with 3:04 remaining, Thomas delivered a layup to cut the lead to three. Then, after Thomas delivered a steal on the defensive side, the Islanders set Jordan up at the top of the key with the shot clock winding down. The senior shook loose and drilled a three to tie the game with 1:52 to play.
The Islanders then forced a turnover and again it was Jordan, shaking his defender and knocking down a long two with 54 seconds left to put the Islanders up 67-65. On the ensuing defensive possession, Jordan stripped Livingston at the top of the key and Cole Martinez fell on the loose ball, calling time out to put the Islanders in the driver's seat. Jordan went 1-for-2 at the free-throw line on each of the next two possessions to push the lead to four with 12 seconds left, capping off the 9-0 run.
Badillo came back by running the floor and earning a trip to the line, hitting both free throws with 7.8 on the clock to make it 69-67 in favor of the Islanders. Jordan headed back to the line on the next possession, and knocked down both shots at the stripe to push the lead to four. Badillo added a three with 0.8 on the clock, but it was not enough, as the Islanders emerged victorious.
Early on, both teams came out hot from the floor. After the visitors took a 4-2 lead, the Islanders responded with the next eight points to rally to a 10-4 advantage. But Incarnate Word used the long ball to come right back, with threes from Jontrell Walker and Livingston tying the score at 10.
The teams went back and forth to a 15-14 Islanders lead, then Ehab Amin scored the next five points to give the home squad a six-point edge. Again, though, the Cardinals came right back with six straight points – four from Traylin Farris – to knot the score at 20. The Islanders then rallied with back-to-back triples from Martinez and Pye to make it 26-20 and force a UIW timeout.
The timeout proved a good one, as the Islanders went cold from the floor, and UIW closed the half on an 18-3 run. A&M-Corpus Christi went just 1-for-11 from the field in the final 8:30 of the stanza while UIW went 7-for-10 in the stretch.
A&M-Corpus Christi came out hot out of the locker room, opening the half on a 13-5 run – capped off by a Pye three – to cut the lead to just one, 43-42. But the Cardinals responded with back-to-back threes, from Kyle Hittle and Livingston, to make it a seven-point game. The teams went back-and-forth over the next several possessions, with UIW extending the lead to nine.
The Islanders then responded with a quick-hit 5-0 run, capped off by a three-point play from Jordan as he went coast-to-coast after a defensive rebound to cut it to four. The Islanders got the lead down to three on three occasions – twice on Thomas layups and once on a bucket by Jordan – before Badillo's layup at the 3:04 mark made it 65-60 and set up Jordan's heroics.
The Islanders will hit the road this weekend to take on Sam Houston State and Houston Baptist. The action begins on Friday afternoon in Huntsville, with the men scheduled for a 4:30 p.m. tipoff at Johnson Coliseum. Yannis Koutroupis will have the call on NewsRadio 1360 KKTX.
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