Box Score LAREDO, Texas – The Heartland Conference's first-place Texas A&M International hosted conference newcomer Lubbock Christian to the TAMIU Kinesiology and Convocation Building on Thursday night in a crucial late-season affair. The game was tight throughout, as the Chaps avenged an earlier 1-point loss to the Dustdevils with a 75-66 squeaking victory.
As a NCAA provisional school, LCU is ineligible for any postseason conference championship or tournament play.
With the loss, the league-leading Dustdevils fall to 11-3 in Heartland play (18-6 overall) while second-place Arkansas-Fort Smith (17-5, 10-4 Heartland) also fell – to Dallas Baptist on Thursday – keeping a 1-game pace in the standings.
In the nine-point defeat, TAMIU saw three seniors finish with 15 points or more: guard Johnel Gray sunk a game-high 19 points, guard Kevin Jefferson Jr. finished with 16 off the bench and big man Damal Donaldson scored 15.
Combined, the trio also seized 10 rebounds – three apiece to Gray and Jefferson and four for Donaldson.
Gray dealt four assists, stuffed a shot and swiped three steals while playing all but three minutes. Jefferson connected with an assist, and Donaldson rejected a shot, converted a steal and helped with a pair of assists.
Senior Jordan Clark scored six points, assisted on a score and made two steals. Starting point guard Matthew Culliver Jr. connected for five points with an assist and two steals. Deonnte Breedlove came off the bench to score three points – all off a 3-pointer – with a pair of assists and blocks in 17 minutes.
Former Heartland Player of the Week Vadal Faniel scored two points, but pulled in a team-high seven rebounds.
TAMIU will next host the University of Texas of the Permian Basin (13-9, 7-7 Heartland) for its regular season home finale on Feb. 15 at 3 p.m. at the TAMIU KCB before facing four consecutive conference road games to close the season.
Feb. 15 will serve as the team's senior day, as Clark, Culliver, Jefferson, Donaldson, Gray and Matthew Pritchett will be honored for their Dustdevil careers by fans, family, TAMIU and the Laredo community in a pregame ceremony.
Immediately before the men's game, the conference-leading Dustdevils will play their final home game of the regular season at 1 p.m. as they will wear pink jerseys in honor of the Play 4 Kay campaign.
According to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund's website, "The Kay Yow Cancer Fund, in partnership with the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and The V Foundation is a charitable organization committed to being a part of finding an answer in the fight against women's cancers through raising money for scientific research, assisting the underserved and unifying people for a common cause.
"Kay Yow, former North Carolina State University head women's basketball coach, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987, and passed away on January 24, 2009, after facing her third bout with the disease. With the creation of the Fund, Kay hoped to raise money to further cutting-edge research conducted by the nation's top doctors and medical experts to allow more and more cancer patients to have access to experimental drugs and clinical trials. Since the majority of these research projects are privately funded, these researchers desperately need our support in order for them to continue to make strides in finding a cure for cancer."
Fans that wear pink to the game will earn FREE admission to the home finale.
