Feb. 20, 2010

Final Stats

Texas A&M International University continued its dominating play at home with a 73-68 Heartland Conference win over Oklahoma Panhandle State on Saturday night at the TAMIU Kinesiology and Convocation Building.

The result extends TAMIU's home winning streak to six games and more importantly, keeps the Dustdevils in fifth place in the Heartland Conference standings with only one game to play. The top six teams in the regular season standings will qualify for the conference postseason tournament, which will be hosted by St. Mary's University on Mar. 4-6.

TAMIU (11-14, 8-7 Heartland) led 37-32 at halftime but Oklahoma Panhandle (10-15, 6-8) hung tough to make it a back-and-forth second half with four lead changes and four ties.

The last tie was 55-55 at the 5:15 mark. TAMIU went on an 8-0 run at that point, taking a 63-55 lead on a dunk by Chris Swan at the 3:20 mark. OPSU cut the lead to 65-63 at the 1:40 mark but the Dustdevils responded again, bouncing the lead to 71-65 on two free throws by St. Paul Latham with 10 seconds left in regulation.

Marcale Narshall hit a three-pointer for the Aggies with four seconds left to cut the TAMIU lead to 71-68. OPSU quickly fouled on the in-bounds pass and Luis Gómez sealed the win for the Dustdevils with two free throws.

Latham turned in another outstanding game, finishing with 25 points, 9 assists and 6 rebounds. Gómez finished with 11 points and Chris Swan contributed a team-high 9 rebounds.

TAMIU concludes the regular season next Saturday with a home game against St. Edward's. It's not certain at this point what the game will mean for seeding purposes but it is known that a win over the Hilltoppers will secure the program's first Heartland Conference tournament berth.