CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – In front of a sell-out crowd on Education Day, presented by Whataburger, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's basketball team surpassed the century mark yet again in a 102-50 victory against Texas Southern Monday morning in the Dugan Wellness Center.
The Islanders (6-5) have now won three in a row and have broken the century mark thrice in three home games this season. It is also the second game in a row that A&M-Corpus Christi shot at least 50.0 percent from the field, turning in a 53.6 shooting day as a team.
It was done while holding Texas Lutheran (1-10) to just a 24.1 clip, also holding huge advantages both in the paint where they outscored the Bulldogs 54-16 and 31-11 off turnovers. It is the second time this season that the Islanders turned the ball over less than 10 times with just nine.
It is the first time this season that five Islanders scored in double figures, with senior
Lance-Amir Paul and junior
Jordan Roberts leading the way with 14 each. Juniors
Shilo Jackson and
Garry Clark both contributed 12 points, while redshirt sophomore
Owen Dease added 10.
Clark got up for 10 rebounds, securing the double-double for the second game in a row.
Aside form a lone free throw in the first two minutes, the Islanders kept the Bulldogs quiet and got out to a 21-1 lead at 14:55 following back-to-backs threes from Roberts. Texas Lutheran tacked on another from the charity strip, but the fastbreak dunk by Jackson pushed the Islanders further ahead.
Texas Lutheran's first bucket of the game came nine minutes in and was an and-one. Though, Jackson converted on the steal by junior
Christian Villegas to make it 27-5 at 9:59. The Islanders got their next six points from the free throw line before Paul added four on a pair of fastbreak layups. Roberts hit his third three-pointer of the half for a 40-10 lead with 4:16 to go.
Freshman
Amont'e Allen-Johnson drew the last second foul and added a cushioned point before the break as the Islanders led it 48-19.
Clark drew the and-one out of the half before forcing a Bulldog turnover where redshirt senior
Dayne Prim converted for two. Holding Texas Lutheran scoreless, the Islanders jumped out 64-19 until the Bulldogs got back to the charity stirp for their first point of the half at 13:43.
Texas Lutheran caught some wind and nailed three from long-range to cut into the deficit 77-38. A&M-Corpus Christi staved off the momentum, however, as junior
Dian Wright-Forde sped things up to score three consecutive fastbreak lay-ins to up the lead to 91-38.
Jackson got the Islanders to 99 with the inside shot before Villegas pushed them over the century mark with the shot from deep to close out the 102-50 win.
The Islanders will play their third and final Big 12 opponent of the season this Friday when they travel to Austin to face Texas. Tip is set for 2 p.m. and can be watched live on the Longhorn Network or listened to live for free on 1440 AM K-E-Y-S.
NOTES
- It marked the fifth all-time meeting between A&M-Corpus Christi and Texas Lutheran, and third in consecutive seasons. The Islanders are 5-0 now against the Bulldogs and have scored at least 100 points in all of the last three meetings, also winning 100-63 in 2022 and 102-64 in 2021.
- The 52-point margin of victory is the biggest A&M-Corpus Christi has posted against Texas Lutheran. It beat the previous largest margin of +38 from the 2021 meeting.
- The Islanders are now 21-0 over the last three seasons when shooting over .500 FG% and 21-0 over the last two seasons when holding the opposition to 70 points or less.
- The team entered the game leading the SLC in rebounding margin (+10.0) and total rebounds (42.3 rpg), improving in both after outrebounding the Bulldogs 46-35. The Islanders were also ranked fourth nationally in bench points per game (39.30) before today and will improve on that mark as well after recording 59 bench points.
- Clark turned in his second straight double-double and third of the year. He is the first player this season to record consecutive double-doubles after turning in a 26-point, 10-rebound performance at UTRGV where he became the first Islander since the 2018-19 season to make at least 12 field goals in a game.
- Roberts, who was coming off a career-high 19 points at UTRGV, posted his second straight double figure scoring game and third of the season. It was the second time this year he made three threes in a game after hitting a trio of them at No. 7 Houston on Nov. 11.
- Paul recorded his sixth 10+ scoring game of the year and fifth in the last six games. He has yet to post back-to-back games of not scoring at least 10 points.
- Jackson matched his career-high of 12 points for his third double digit scoring game of the season. He broke his career-high of blocks in a game with two.
- Dease submitted his third double figure scoring game of the season and eighth of his career. He set his career-high of free throws made in a game after sinking six today.
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