Men's Basketball 11/14/2012 11:25:00 PM

Men's Basketball Tops Texas A&M Kingsville

Box Score
KINGSVILLE, Texas – The TAMIU men’s basketball team improved to 2-0 on the season Wednesday night, knocking off Texas A&M Kingsville 67-60 at Hampton Inn Court in Kingsville.

The win snaps TAMIU’s eight game losing streak to the Javelinas, dating back to the 2006 season.
TAMIU shot 51 percent from the field, while the Dustdevils’ defense held the Javelinas to just 37 percent. The Dustdevils also shot 42 percent from three point range and were a perfect 13-13 from the free throw line.

“Our guys really followed the game plan tonight,” said Head Coach Bryan Weakley, “It was a total team effort. We have 11 guys suited up right now and we need all of them to contribute. This team can never relax – we’re too small to think we can take nights off. We didn’t tonight and that’s why we were successful.”

Johnel Gray led the Dustdevils with a game high 19 points on 8-15 shooting from the field. The redshirt junior from Portland, Oregon also added tallied six rebounds, three assists, and four steals.

“Their defense had a tough time with Johnel tonight,” said Coach Weakley. “We play four guards on the perimeter so they were forced to guard him with a post. It was a mismatch that worked in our favor.”

Juniors Derico Dandridge and Felipe Vezaro also big nights – Dandridge finished with 15 points knocking down all 11 of his free throw attempts, while Vezaro kicked in 13 points shooting 3-4 from beyond the arc.

TAMIU scored the opening two points of the game and would never surrender the lead. After trading baskets in the early moments in the game, Johnel Gray made a layup which kick started a 9-0 TAMIU run. Matthew Culliver capped the run with a three pointer at the 10:27 mark, giving the Dustdevils a 17-5 lead. Minutes later Gray scored five straight for TAMIU, pushing the lead out to 24-10. With under a minute remaining in the opening half Kingsville trimmed the lead down to six, but Derico Dandrige converted a crucial three-point play with only 21 ticks left to push the lead back to nine. Gray added two free throws with one second left on the clock, sending TAMIU into the break with a 37-26 halftime lead.

The Javelinas came out swinging in the second half and cut TAMIU’s lead down to just six points with 9:35 remaining. Dandridge, Damal Donaldson, and Javyin Reynolds each had key buckets to keep Kingsville at bay, but with only 2:18 remaining TAMIU’s lead was down to five. With less than 60 seconds to play, the Javelinas began to foul but Dandridge was ice cold from the charity stripe. The junior went 8-8 from the free-throw line in the final minute to secure the 67-60 win.

The Dustdevils will be back on their home court this Saturday hosting Incarnate Word at the TAMIU KCB. Tip off for Saturday’s game is set for 7 p.m.

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