Feb. 14, 2009

Final Stats

Texas A&M International University kept its Heartland Conference postseason hopes alive with an 85-82 win over Newman on Saturday afternoon at the TAMIU Kinesiology & Convocation Building. The win improves TAMIU's Heartland record to 5-6, good for sixth place with five league games remaining. The top four teams qualify for the conference postseason tournament.

TAMIU (7-15 overall) came out firing on all cylinders, jumping out to a 24-11 lead on a jumper by Sean Tucker at the 12:18 mark of the first half. The lead stood at 13 points at the 7:15 mark before Newman (13-10, 7-5 Heartland) fought back to cut the deficit to 40-39 at halftime.

The game went back-and-forth early in the second half with Newman tying the score for the sixth time in the period on a Tommy Brumbelow layup at the 12:19 mark. Mark Walton sunk a 3-pointer a minute later, giving TAMIU the lead for good.

Chris Buttermore made the front end of a pair of free throws to stretch the lead to 73-64 at the 3:07 mark. Newman would cut it to three points at the 1:50 mark but TAMIU would go up 83-75 on the second of two free throws by Sean Tucker with 26 seconds remaining in regulation.

Newman had a chance at tying 3-pointer at the buzzer but Jake Darby's attempt was well defended by the Dustdevils and it fell well short of the basket.

Tucker led the Dustdevils with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Ignacio García and José Alicea finished with 10 points apiece.

TAMIU returns to action on Thursday with a road game at Dallas Baptist. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.