Laredo, Texas- The Texas A&M International Men's Basketball team took on their rivals the Texas A&M Kingsville Javelinas. The atmosphere inside the KCB Gymnasium was palpable as both teams fans were anxiously waiting to see the kickoff of Lone Star Conference play, especially between the two rival schools. Student Government Association also had special awards, presentations and fun games for those in attendance. The two teams are 5-5 in the last ten meetings against each other.
 
The two teams started out neck and neck and after twelve minutes already being played, the two teams were even at 11-11. After the media timeout, the Dustdevils went out on a 7-2 run out the gate.  They continued that momentum and finished the first half with a 10-point lead going into the locker room 29-19. After ten minutes of hard play in the second half. the Dustdevils found themselves up 14 points with ten minutes left to play in the game. The Dustdevils never trailed in the second half and grew their biggest lead to 18 before winning 65-50 over their rivals.
 
The Dustdevils finished the game shooting 23-53 from the field, 10-30 from three and 9-13 from the free throw line. The Dustdevils finished grabbing 35 rebounds, 9 assists, 2 blocks and 4 steals on the evening. The Dustdevils were led offensively by Emaniel Alexandre who recorded 13 points, 1 steal, and four rebounds. Esteban Roacho finished the game with 12 points and 6 rebounds. Overall, it was a balanced performance from the Dustdevils that led to the large margin of victory against the Javelinas.

Coach Mac Commented,

"First game of conference this early in the year is always hard. I thought the guys played hard defensively and offensively we were a little rusty after coming off a long break since our last game. Overall, there were lots of good things to be happy about. We saw some things we need to work on in order to have more efficiency on the offensive side of the ball. Our goal offensively is to get our offense scoring around seventy-five points a game without having to sacrifice on the defensive end. As we continue to work and grow as a team, we will put things together and I believe we will have a strong unit."
The Dustdevils move to 4-3 overall and 1-0 in the conference. The Dustdevils play again November 29^th against Southern Nazarene University in Dallas at 7:00 PM CDT.