COMMERCE, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's basketball team pounced early on East Texas A&M and didn't let up to get back in the win column with a compelling 78-66 victory Monday night in the Field House.
The Islanders (15-9, 8-4 SLC) also got back to their hot shooting, going 30-for-51 from the field (58.8%) to record their 13
th game of the season above 50.0 percent. It was aided by a spread offense that had three Islanders score in double digits while the team assisted on 22 field goals.
They also held a huge advantage in the paint where they outscored the Lions (3-20, 1-11 SLC) 46-24.
Freshman
Isaac Williams got going early with back-to-back driving lay-ins for the 4-0 jumpstart as the Islanders made nine of their first 11 field goal attempts to power a 21-4 lead following the second chance three-pointer from junior
Kam Parker. The tip in from redshirt junior
Stephen Giwa made it a 28-9 game as A&M-Corpus Christi kept the Lions to just single digits with 9:41 left in the first.
However, East Texas A&M found a defensive rhythm to keep the visiting squad scoreless for the next three minutes before the Islanders rattled off six straight to get up by 21 points at 38-17 with 3:18 to play. Consecutive threes from the Lions were met by another one from Parker at the buzzer and the Islanders headed to the break up 41-27.
The Lions came out and hit another set of long-range shots to suddenly be within nine and force an Islanders timeout. After settling, redshirt junior
Owen Dease bucketed his own three to create another double digit lead that this time was never broken again. It actually spurred an 11-1 scoring run that senior
Garry Clark capped with the and-one on the takeaway for a 53-34 advantage.
Freshman
Damarion Dennis got the Islanders back up to a 20-point lead (64-44) from the charity strip with 7:18 to go. The and-one drawn by junior
Leo Torbor on the next possession kept the momentum on A&M-Corpus Christi's side, especially when junior
Christian Villegas checked in and nailed the three-ball off his own takeaway for their last goal of the night to take home the 78-66 victory.
Clark has continued his streak of scoring in double figures in every game this season, ending with 11 tonight. Dating back to last season, he is on a 31-game streak of scoring 10+ points in a game, the longest active streak in the NCAA.
Williams ended as the team's leading scorer at 12 points, his second consecutive 10+ scoring game and seventh in conference play. Parker joined them in double digits with 10 points, going 4-for-5 from the field including 2-for-2 from three.
It ends the first of two consecutive road trips for the Islanders, who will now head to SFA and Lamar to continue conference play next weekend.
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