Feb. 17, 2011
Final Stats
Texas A&M International University added another big win in a season of big wins with an 82-74 overtime victory over Arkansas-Fort Smith on Thursday night at the TAMIU Kinesiology and Convocation Building.
UAFS (17-9) held a 34-29 halftime lead and a 41-34 lead at the 17:44 mark of the second half before TAMIU (18-8) went on a 15-0 run to take a 49-41 lead on a short jumper by Ryan McLucas at the 11:25 mark. Luís Gómez pushed the lead to 52-42 with three free throws at the 8:13 mark but the game was far from over.
The Lions cut the Dustdevil lead to 59-58 at the 2:06 mark before Scottie Payne personally outscored the visitors 7-3 over the next minute and a half to give TAMIU a 66-61 lead with 30 seconds left in regulation.
The Dustdevil lead stood at 68-63 with 20 seconds left but UAFS tied the contest with a furious rally. The Lions cut the deficit to 68-66 on a 3-pointer by Jake Toupal before TAMIU threw the ball out of bounds on a court length pass on the ensuing in-bounds pass.
James Silvie fouled Djordje Stojanovic on UAFS's next possession and the big Serbian sent the game into overtime by sinking two free throws.
TAMIU started the overtime period with a 4-0 run, taking a 72-68 lead on a twisting lay-up by Brian Schaeffer at the 3:32 mark. The Dustdevil lead would be cut to 75-73 at the 1:12 mark but that's as close as Lions would get.
Ian Salter put the game out of reach with 40 seconds left when he grabbed a defensive rebound on a missed UAFS free throw, was fouled, and made two free throws to push TAMIU to a 79-73 lead.
Free throws were a major factor in overtime, with TAMIU sealing the win by making 10 of 13 shots from the charity stripe. UAFS made only four of 12 free throw attempts in overtime.
TAMIU (7-3 Heartland) will go into Saturday's home finale against Dallas Baptist one game ahead of Newman (6-4) in the league standings. The race for the four conference tournament spots is tight with only two games separating the top five teams in the win column.
The other teams in the race are Dallas Baptist (5-4), UT-Permian Basin (5-4) and St. Mary's (6-5).
