Feb. 27, 2010

Final Stats

Texas A&M International University is on a roll on the verge of its first appearance in the Heartland Conference Tournament. The Dustdevils defeated St. Edward's 61-57 in the regular season finale for both teams on Saturday at the TAMIU Kinesiology and Convocation Building.

The result marks TAMIU's seventh straight home win and secures the fifth seed for the Dustdevils in the conference tournament, which will be held Mar. 4-6 at St. Mary's. TAMIU will open the tournament on Thursday with a quarterfinal round game against Dallas Baptist.

TAMIU (12-14, 9-7 Heartland) took a 57-52 lead on a layup by Luis Gómez at the 1:27 mark before St. Edward's (12-15, 7-9) went on a 5-0 run to tie the score with 41 seconds left in regulation.

SEU attempted a full court press on TAMIU's ensuing possession but the Dustdevils broke the press and senior José Alicea dished the ball off to a wide open Evan Matteson, who hit a jumper from the right side to give the home team a 59-57 lead.

St. Edward's missed its next two field goal attempts and TAMIU made two of four free throw attempts over the final 20 seconds to secure the win.

TAMIU's two seniors, Chris Swan and Alicea, came up big in the win.

Swan finished with 8 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds. Alicea finished with only 3 points to go along with 2 assists but his trey at the 6:48 mark was the spark that started a 7-0 run that pushed the Dustdevils to a 51-46 lead at the 5:17 mark.

Will Faiivae led the Dustdevils with 17 points and 7 rebounds. Gary Matthews Jr. finished with 11 points and 6 rebounds.