HOUSTON, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's basketball team saw a six-game unbeaten streak come to an end Monday night after dropping a 76-72 decision to HCU in Sharp Gym.
A slow first half saw the Islanders (13-7, 6-2 SLC) get down by as many as 16 points that they could never fully recover from despite a late surge down the stretch that ended with the four-point difference.
The Islanders entered the night averaging under 12 turnovers a game, but reached that many in the first half alone, ending with 18 total on the night which HCU (8-11, 5-3 SLC) was able to take advantage of for 21 points.
The Islanders outshot HCU 47.4 (27-57) to 43.6 (24-55) but the charity strip was kinder to the Huskies who went 20-for-26 in free throws compared to A&M-Corpus Christi's 12-for-21 night.
The teams matched each other early as senior Jordan Robert's three covered HCU's at 17:02 to be knotted at 5-all. However, turnovers continued to haunt the Islanders as the Huskies were able to score off multiple takeaways to all of a sudden lead it 23-10 at 10:16. Redshirt junior
Owen Dease hit the long-range shot in response before redshirt senior
Jaden Walker returned the favor of stripping the ball from HCU and getting it to freshman
Damarion Dennis at 8:55 to get within eight.
The Huskies continued to shoot hot to build a 16-point lead with 6:38 left in the half. The Islanders tried finding momentum when junior
Kam Parker drew the and-one from beyond the arc for the four-point play at 4:12 to trail 35-25, however, two more threes from the HCU bench aided a 45-32 lead for the home squad at the break.
A quick four points for the Islanders got them back within single digits to start the second before another three from HCU made it 48-36 at 18:44 as they fought to keep at least a 10-point difference. Finally gaining on the Huskies, though, was Roberts who nailed back-to-back threes to strike within five points at 55-50 with 12 minutes remaining.
Roberts' fourth three of the night came another possession later, fighting to keep the Islanders within two possessions but the closest they would get is 59-57 following the second chance bucket from Clark as time ran out on their attempt at the comeback.
It is just the seventh time ever that the Islanders dropped a game to HCU, still leading 16-7 in the all-time series. It is their first loss to the Huskies in two seasons.
Roberts ended as the team's leading scorer with 14 points off the bench following his 4-for-7 night from three. Freshman
Isaac Williams got back into double figures with 13 while Clark tacked on 11 and redshirt junior
Stephen Giwa added 10.
Clark kept his streak alive of scoring 10+ points in every game this year. Dating back to last season, he is on a 27-game streak of scoring in double figures, which continues to be the longest active streak in the NCAA.
The Islanders will now head home for a test next weekend when they take on Nicholls Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and McNeese on Monday at 7 p.m. in the American Bank in a pair of top-three conference matchups.
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