KATY, Texas – Regulation proved too short to decide the Southland Conference Tournament championship game on Saturday night. Tied after 40 minutes of play, the No. 2 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's basketball team was outscored by three in the extra period by No. 1 seed New Orleans, as the Islanders fell 68-65.
The Islanders (20-11) had an opportunity to tie it up in the final 10 second, but
Rashawn Thomas' long-range from the left wing missed its mark.
Earlier, Thomas put the Islanders ahead with 51 seconds to play in the second half, before New Orleans (20-11) tied it up with a pair of freebies by Erik Frye.
"I thought we had some good looks and good opportunities, but things just didn't go our way down the stretch," head coach
Willis Wilson said. "I couldn't be more proud of how our guys played. They showed so much resolve as any team could show. When you look at the bigger picture, considering our lack of depth, I couldn't be more proud of a basketball team."
After the Privateers opened the game with six straight points, Corpus Christi responded with a 26-10 run before the break.
Cole Martinez drained a trio of his five 3-pointers during the stretch.
The Islanders grew the lead to 10 with five consecutive points from
Joseph Kilgore, part of his 11 in the opening 20 minutes.
Out of the break, New Orleans slowly closed the gap, tying the contest on a Michael Zeno layup with 12:20 remaining.
Thomas, Kilgore and
Ehab Amin combined to go on an 8-2 run and give the Islanders the lead with six minutes to play before the teams relied upon the charity stripe. Corpus Christi went 8-of-9 at the line while New Orleans shot 5-of-8 before the end of regulation.
In overtime, Martinez drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put the Blue and Green back up by one. The Privateers created just enough distance with a 5-0 run.
Corpus Christi was 46.8-percent from the field on the night, including a 56.5-percent clip in the opening 20 minutes. New Orleans shot an identical 56.5-percent clip in the second half.
The Privateers' edge came on the glass. Outrebounding the Blue and Green 40-25, New Orleans converted 19 offensive rebounds into 21 second chance points.
"We knew that was going to be an area of struggles coming in," Wilson added. "It's just one of those things where our speed gets us one or two more rebounds. The truth of the matter is that we were one or two more rebounds away from having a chance to put the game away."
TIP-INS
>> In his final game wearing the Blue and Green, Thomas was a force with 22 points, eight rebounds and four blocks.
>> Martinez knocked down five triples and was a perfect 4-of-4 to start the night.
>> With his first steal of the game, Amin became the all-time record holder for steals in a career, surpassing
Hameed Ali's mark of 193
