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CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – After a successful week on the road, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's basketball program returns home to face St. Mary's (TX) at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Dugan Wellness Center.
A&M-Corpus Christi (4-1) beat IUPUI, Denver and the host UTSA last weekend and it was the first time in school history that it won a preseason tournament of at least three games. It was also the first time since 2016-17 that the Islanders topped three Division I schools in non-conference play.
Junior
Isaac Mushila is the reigning SLC Player of the Week winner. He averaged 17.0 points and 11.3 rebounds at the UTSA Tournament and was 17-of-23 (.739) from the field. His biggest performance came in a 77-58 victory over UTSA where he registered 21 points and 17 rebounds. Mushila became the first A&M-Corpus Christi student-athlete to win SLC Player of the Week since Rashawn Thomas on Feb. 20, 2017.
Mushila and senior
De'Lazarus Keys were named to the All-Tournament Team.
A&M-Corpus Christi has used a balanced scoring attack thus far. It has five student-athletes who score at least 8.2 points per game, led by Mushila's 13.0 points and 9.2 rebounds per outing.
St. Mary's is off to a 1-1 start with a win over Colorado School of Mines 82-59 and an overtime defeat to Regis 89-81. The Rattlers played Texas State tough in a 52-43 exhibition loss on Nov. 4. St. Mary's is a high scoring team, averaging 81.5 points per game including 22.0 from Kobe Magee.
St. Mary's is a NCAA Division II program that competes in the Lone Star Conference.
Before Saturday's game, A&M-Corpus Christi will honor senior
Myles Smith in becoming a 1,000-point career scorer. Smith surpassed 1,000 against the Aggies and is up to 1,025. He was named to the Preseason All-Conference First-Team. Two years ago, he was the team's leading scorer with 13.5 points per outing. Smith ranks sixth all-time in school history three-pointers made and seventh in assists. He currently leads the league in assist:turnover ratio with a 3.0 mark.
NOTES
- A&M-Corpus Christi is 4-0 all-time against St. Mary's (TX). The last meeting was an 81-53 result on Dec. 7, 2019.
- A&M-Corpus Christi has outscored the opposition in points in the paint and in fast break points in all five games this year. The team is 4-0 when it outscores the opposition off the bench.
- The Islanders rank second in the Southland Conference in both scoring defense and field goal percentage defense, limiting teams to 66.8 points per game and a .407 clip.
- Junior
Terrion Murdix ranks second in the conference in both assists (4.6 apg) and steals (2.0 spg). He dished out 10 assists in the season opener against Texas Lutheran and has grabbed at least one steal in every game this year.
- A&M-Corpus Christi is 203-101 all-time at home.
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Steve Lutz was announced the head coach in April 2021 after spending the previous four seasons as an assistant coach at Purdue. During that span, the Boilermakers reached every NCAA Tournament including an Elite Eight in 2018-19 and a Sweet 16 in 2017-18.
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