LAREDO, Texas (December 17, 2015) -- TAMIU Men's Basketball shined in their Heartland Conference debut for the 2015-16 season with a 61-49 victory over Lubbock Christian on Thursday night. The win boosts the Dustdevils to a 6-3 record overall, and a 1-0 record in Heartland Conference play.

With the Dustdevils home court being unavailable due to graduation preparations, TAMIU took advantage of an expanded hometown crowd at United High School on Thursday night. TAMIU broke open a lead early in the first half, which they ran with to the final buzzer. Defensively, the Dustdevils took away LCU's performance beyond the arc, limiting them to a 6.3% completion rate. TAMIU held the Chaps to zero 3's in the first half.

Senior Guard Anthony Alston led the Dustdevils with a 14 point performance. He was followed closely by Junior Forward Jordan VanDeKop, who contributed 13 points and 7 rebounds. Senior Forward Arkeem Joseph rounded out the Dustdevils top-performers with a 12 point, 10 rebound effort.

Overall, a full team effort generated the Dustdevils victory. Additional key players, Deonnte Breedlove, Denzel Bellot, and Arthur Santanna combined for 20 points and 19 rebounds during the night.

Post-game, Head Coach Bryan Weakley commented on the win by saying, "We played Dustdevil basketball tonight. I felt like we controlled a lot of the game tonight on both ends of the court against a extremely well coached basketball team." Weakley continued, "I really have a lot of respect for Coach Duncan and his team. They are a class act."

Up next, the Dustdevils will look to take on their next Heartland Conference foe, Oklahoma Panhandle State, on Saturday, December 19th. Tip off is at 3pm in the TAMIU KCB.

"We have a long ways to go as a team but this was a step in the right direction." concluded Coach Weakley.

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