Men's Basketball 1/5/2013 9:36:00 PM

Dustdevils Grit Out Win Over UT-Permian Basin

Box Score

LAREDO, Texas ( December 5) – The TAMIU men’s basketball team withstood a late surge by The University of Texas of the Permian Basin and held on for a 81-72 win Saturday afternoon at the TAMIU KCB. Matthew Culliver led the Dustdevils scoring a season high 22 points to go along nine rebounds, five assists, and four steals.

The hard fought game between the rival teams featured 56 personal fouls and 66 total free throw attempts. TAMIU connected on a season high 27-37 attempts from the line while the Falcons finished 22-29.

The Dustdevils led by as many as 18 points in the second half before the Falcons fought their way back to just a four point deficit with just under a minute remaining in the game. TAMIU put the game away at the free throw line, hitting eight consecutive free throws in the final minute to pick up their second conference win of the season.

“Tonight’s game went exactly how I thought it would go,” said Head Coach Bryan Weakley. “UTPB is a rival of ours so I knew it was going to be close. Our guys stuck together and responded when they made their big run in the second half. That shows a great deal of growth from our guys. Matt is one of our team leaders. We need him to be consistent every time we play. He played a great game tonight and led with passion.”

Johnel Gray finished with 12 points connecting on 5-6 shots from the field before fouling out with 7:24 remaining in the game. Jordan Clark added 11 points and eight boards, while Kevin Jefferson Jr. and Danny Rosas combined for 19 points. Derico Dandridge finished perfect from the charity stripe for the third time this season, hitting all six of his attempts to finish with nine points.

The Dustdevils shot 53.5 percent from the field, including 47.1 percent from three-point range, TAMIU’s second highest mark of the season. The Falcons shot 46.9 percent from the field, but struggled from distance hitting only 4-16 three-point attempts (25 percent).

Xavier Martin led four Falcon players in double digits with 14 points, while Madison Turner and Anthony Dees added 12 points apiece and Keith Martin contributed 11.

Reynolds and Rosas combined for five straight points to give TAMIU a 5-0 lead of the gate and the Dustdevils would never relinquish that lead. After a UTPB bucket, Culliver connected on a three-pointer pushing TAMIU’s lead out to 8-2. The Falcons trimmed the lead down to four points on a jumper by Fabian Sebastian, but TAMIU answered with five straight points by Jordan Clark and Culliver to extend their advantage back out to 18-9. This pattern repeated for the majority of the first half, where every time UTPB got within range of tying the game, the Dustdevils would respond with a small run to keep the Falcons at bay. UTPB trimmed the lead down to three with just over four minutes remaining in the half, but TAMIU closed on a 6-0 run to take a 36-27 lead into the half.

The Dustdevils opened the second half outscoring UTPB 7-3, pushing their lead out to 11 points. After Anthony Dees converted a three point play, TAMIU’s defense began to take control drawing three consecutive charges to spark a 16-6 run to give the Dustdevils a 59-41 lead. The Falcons responded with a defensive burst of their own, cutting the lead all the way down from 18 points to four with 5:32 remaining in the game. Clark and Dandridge each converted huge three-point plays down the stretch to keep UTPB from taking the lead, but with under 57 seconds to play Rob Heyer hit a crucial three to pull the Falcons within four. Free throw shooting down the stretch proved to be the difference in the game as TAMIU hit all eight of their final attempts to lock up the 81-72 win.

The victory over the Falcons lifted TAMIU’s conference record to 2-1 on the season, 7-4 overall, while UTPB dropped to 0-3 in conference play and 2-7 overall. The Dustdevils will now hit the road for a challenging two-game road trip, starting with no. 18 Newman University followed by a matchup with The University of Arkansas Fort-Smith. Newman is a perfect 3-0 in Heartland Conference play and 11-1 overall. The Dustdevils will tip off against the Jets Thursday night in Wichita, Kansas at 7:30 p.m.

“This will be our biggest test of the year so far,” said Coach Weakley, “we play two very good teams. We will have to play better than we did in the last two games to have success during this stretch.”

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