LAREDO, Texas – Texas A&M International men's basketball opened the 2022-23 season in front of the home crowd and halted Chadron State's comeback effort, defeating the Eagles 71-66. It's the first time since 2011-12, 2012-13 TAMIU has won consecutive season openers.
The first half was a defensive struggle over the first 10:09 as the score sat at 14-13 in favor over Chadron State (0-1, 0-0 RMAC).
The remainder of the first half was heavily in favor of the Dustdevils (1-0, 0-0 LSC). After going down 17-13, TAMIU would go on to outscore the Eagles 24-6 to lead 37-23 at the half.
Out of the locker room, the Dustdevils grew the lead to as much as 17 points, leading 52-35 with 12:46 remaining in the half.
Over the next 7:03, Chadron State would nearly crawl all the way back, cutting the deficit to 55-53 with 5:43 remaining.
It was the closest the game would be, as down the stretch, TAMIU would grow the lead back to seven and counter any offense the Eagles put together to seal the victory.
For the game, the Dustdevils shot 48.2% (27-for-56) from the floor and 5-for-15 (33.3%) from deep, but free-throws were a woe, going 12-for-22 from the stripe.
On the other side, the Eagles finished 22-for-49 (44.9%) from the floor, were 9-for-22 (40.9%) from deep and 13-for-19 from the free-throw line.
Graduate student Greg Bowie II led the team with 13 points and three assists. Junior Juwan White followed with 10 points, while sophomore Matthew Okoye also had 10 points, alongside four rebounds.
Senior Jermaine Drewey put together nine points, four rebounds and three blocks, while junior Mike Rivera chipped in six points, five rebounds and three blocks of his own.
TAMIU returns to the floor on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. when they host South Dakota Mines inside the KCB.
