CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's basketball team staved off a second half rally from Lamar to hold strong with a 79-71 decision Saturday at the American Bank Center.
After yielding the first points of the game, the Islanders (14-8, 7-2 SLC) jumped out in front of Lamar (12-10, 6-3 SLC) off the back of three consecutive three-pointers and never gave up the lead the rest of the way despite the late effort from the latter. It included a lot of ball control down the stretch as the Islanders only turned the ball over eight times while forcing 15 Lamar turnovers.
Redshirt senior
Dayne Prim fueled the Islanders off the bench with a team-high 19 points after going 8-of-11 from the field. Also getting to double figures were juniors
Tedrick Washington Jr. (17) and
Jordan Roberts (15) who combined to make seven of the team's nine three-pointers.
It is the second time in the last three games that A&M-Corpus Christi made nine field goals from beyond-the-arc. They have shot over 33.3 percent from the three in five SLC games this season.
Lamar had Terry Anderson leading all-scorers with 20 points as well as coming down with 11 rebounds for the double-double.
The Islanders let it fly from deep early as Robert knocked in a pair following one from Dease as the Islanders led 9-2. Prim came off the bench hot for the and-one off the contest layup before going deep for his next shot to maintain a seven-point advantage at 14:01.
Clark hit consecutive jumpers to stretch that lead to 22-13 with under ten minutes on the block. Junior
Dian Wright-Forde with the lay in at 3:11 made it a 10-point difference but Lamar answered late to cut its deficit back to single digits as A&M-Corpus Christi led 37-28 at the break.
The Cardinals came out fighting in the second half with a run of points, but Washington drilled home a three to extend back ahead 45-37. Lamar managed to tie things up with 14:57 but jumpers from Dease and Clark gave the Islanders back a four-point lead. Washington threw up his third three-pointer of the day to keep A&M-Corpus Christi pushing ahead.
Washington yet again went deep, and this time drew the foul in the process as he completed the four-point play at 10:40. A pair of putbacks from Prim kept the Islanders holding strong at 65-57 with 5:52 to play and Giwa soon after got fouled on his slam dunk to extend it to 68-59. Prim also got up for the hammer at 1:02 before free throws closed out the game.
The Islanders close out the first half of conference play just one game back from first after McNeese lost its first conference game of the season today. It will be another battle for the top next Saturday as those two teams rematch each other to begin the second part of the round robin schedule.
NOTES
- A&M-Corpus Christi now trails just 14-15 in the all-time series with Lamar, but is now 8-7 at home against the Cardinals. The Islanders have won their last five home games when playing Lamar, not dropping to them on their home court since 2018-19.
- The program improves to 232-110 all-time at home, 153-81 at the American Bank Center, and 8-2 this season.
- The Islanders entered the game averaging 37.00 bench points per game, which ranked #2 overall in the NCAA. They will improve after the bench contributed 43 points. A&M-Corpus Christi also nationally ranked top-20 off. rebounds per game at 13.76 and was above par with 16.
- Prim matched his season-high of 19 points, first set against Omaha back on Dec. 9, and was one-shy of his career-high of 20 points. It marked his fifth double figure scoring game of the year and third in a row. His eight made field goals matched his career best.
- Washington submitted his career-high 17 points in his fifth double figure scoring game of the year. It was the second time this year he made four three-pointers in a game, his career best.
- Roberts recorded his ninth 10+ scoring game of the year, 15
th in his career, and second in the last four games. He has made at least a trio of threes in a game five times this season.
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