CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's basketball team nearly recovered from being down at the half by turning an eight-point deficit into an eight-point in the second half,
The Islanders only trailed 42-34 at the half despite Nicholls shooting hot from long-range where they sank 10 first-half three-pointers compared to A&M-Corpus Christi's trio. The second half saw a newly composed defense as the Islanders locked down the three-point shot on both ends, holding Nicholls to just one in the last 20 minutes while netting six themselves to fight back into the game.
In the end, the teams were nearly even across the board, both shooting over .500 from the field and having 20 made threes between the two while the Islanders just edged the Colonels on the glass 26-24. The foul disparity appeared to be the decider in the end, as Nicholls found the five-point difference from the charity strip.
Nicholls came out on a 14-3 run, broken up only by the early three-point sinker from
Nick Shogbonyo.
Franck Yetna went deep at 13:24 to make in a single-digit game again and was followed by the tip-in from
Sheldon Williams who made it 16-9.
Leo Torbor drove the rim and
Kam Parker took his turn at the arc off a Nicholls turnover to trail by 19-14, however, the Colonels would climb back up to a 10-point lead with 5:40 to go in the half.
Despite getting into that early hole, the Islanders continued to dig their way out of it rattling off a six-point run to make it a two-possession game as the bigs went to work with
Cenker Evran and Yetna contributing at the charity strip while Williams drove the lane off a turnover. Nicholls continued to drain the three ball but the Islanders converted four of their last five possessions to only trail by eight at the break.
The Islanders rode momentum into the second, quickly covering the deficit and reversing the score as a 10-2 run tied things at 44-all before the lay-in by Yetna pulled the Islanders ahead at 46-45. Gibson kept it going by hitting another three at 11:54 and the Islanders' lead blossomed into a 60-53 advantage.
They stayed ahead 65-57 with eight minutes to go off a long-range shot from Shogbonyo. However, a scoring drought allowed Nicholls to tie things back up at 67 and while the majority of the rest of the game stayed within a possession, the Colonels ended with the advantage down the stretch.
Shogbonyo ended with a game-high 16 points with four three-pointers aiding that. He has scored in double figures in every conference game so far this year, along with
Sheldon Williams who put up 13 points and seven rebounds tonight. Williams was near par with his season rebounding average (7.2) entering the game where he ranked third overall in the league.
Gibson went 2-for-2 from three tonight and ended with 12 points to join Shogbonyo and Williams in double figures.
It is the first time since head coach
Jim Shaw has been on the staff – since the 2021-22 season – that the Islanders lost despite shooting 50% or over from the field (16-1 conference record).
The Islanders will wrap up the 2025 calendar year on New Year's Eve against New Orleans back at the Hilliard Center for a 3:30 p.m. tip.
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