NATCHITOCHES, La. – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's basketball team capitalized on a big first half to nearly lead by double figures the rest of the way and top Northwestern State 79-68 at Prather Coliseum Saturday.
The Islanders (12-8, 5-2 SLC) shot 51.6 from the field in the first half in addition to holding a 25-11 advantage on the glass to lead by at least 10 points the majority of the way. A&M-Corpus Christi suffered a slight drought in the second as Northwestern State (5-15, 3-4 SLC) finally fought back within 10 at 6:53 but the Islanders held strong and made every free throw under five minutes to play to push back to a +11 win margin.
The teams were even in the paint, but the Islanders went 9-of-19 from three for their best three-point field goal percentage of the season with the 47.4 percent clip. A&M-Corpus Christi held the Demons to just four from beyond-the-arc.
Making his return to Natchitoches, redshirt
Dayne Prim led all scorers with 17 points as the former Demon went 3-of-3 from long-range. He was joined in double figures by redshirt sophomore Steven Giwa and junior
Tedrick Washington Jr. who each added 13 points.
The Demons had four in double figures, including Justin Wilson who went 6-of-7 from the field for 16 points.
Shaking off an early foul, the Islanders got started with the three ball by graduate
Marion Humphrey. Northwestern State got back up 5-3 but the lead wouldn't hold up as the long-range shot by junior
Jordan Roberts put the Islanders ahead 7-5 as they never looked back. The alley-oop from
Owen Dease to
Stephen Giwa made a statement as the Islanders continued a 21-3 onslaught capped by the driving lay-in by senior
Lance-Amir Paul at 9:59.
Washington kept it going with the three-pointer for the 27-10 lead at 8:47. Humphrey got the near out of bound save and got it to Washington inside to make it 31-12. A slight drought tarnished the Islanders, but Dease went deep to get out 37-21 with 4:30 to go.
Junior
Dian Wright-Forde on the fastbreak had the Islanders up 41-27 and the last second tip-in from Giwa sent them to the break leading 43-29.
Dease drilled the three-pointer again for a 48-33 lead in the second half. The steal and slam by Humphrey pushed it to a 17-point lead and the slight run by the Demons was silenced by the deep shot from Prim at 15:09. Prim went deep again at 12:29 for a 60-44 advantage and a slew of free throws had the Islanders up 64-46 with 9:47 to play.
Northwestern State found momentum and fought within 10 for nearly three minutes before Giwa's contest putback at 3:53 gave the Islanders back a double figure lead the rest of the way.
The Islanders will remain on the road, heading to Texas A&M-Commerce for a 7 p.m. tip Monday night.
NOTES
- The Islanders are now 17-7 all-time over Northwestern State and hold a 6-3 advantage when playing visitor to the Demons. They have won the last five straight meetings, including three times last year. A&M-Corpus Christi won an SLC Championship in each of the last two meetings prior to today's matchup.
- It is the second time in the last two seasons that the Islanders held the Demons to under 70 points. The Islanders won by 11 points, their largest win margin against the Demons since they won 89-67 in the 2022 SLC Quarterfinals en route to winning the tournament title.
- The Islanders entered the night ranked #4 overall in the NCAA for bench points per game (36.54) and will improve after the bench contributed 43 points in today's game.
- Graduate
Marion Humphrey entered the game leading the SLC in assist/turnover ratio (2.8) and will improve after posting a 6:1 assist/turnover ratio today. It was his seventh 5+ assist game of the year.
- Prim recorded his third double figure scoring game of the year and first since the conference opener at UIW. It was his second time making a trio of threes in a game this season.
- Giwa submitted his third 10+ scoring game of the year, seventh in his career, and second in a row. The 13 points matched his season-best first set against Schreiner in the nonconference finale.
- Washington turned in his third double digit scoring game of the year and first in Southland Conference play. He was a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line, making them all within the last 40 seconds of the game.
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