Kingsville – After losing an nine point lead with 28 seconds left in overtime, the Texas A&M-Kingsville men’s basketball team rallied in the final 20 seconds of overtime to beat Texas A&M-Commerce 91-88.  Click here for video highlights.  Click here for stats.

   Adan Montalvo (La Joya), who missed a free throw with nine seconds left in regulation that could have sealed the victory, redeemed himself by hitting two free throws with 2.7 seconds left in overtime to provide the final margin.

   Montalvo finished with a team-high 18 points, Stephen Story (San Antonio East Central) came off the bench to scored 16 points and grab 9 rebounds in just 18 minutes before fouling out. Reggie Love (Wichita, Kan.) had 16 points, Clyde Johnson (Converse Judson) had 15 points and 9 rebounds and point guard Wendell Mulkey (San Antonio East Central) added 11 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 5 steals.

   Scooby Johnson led the Lions with 24 points before fouling out in overtime.

   The win gave the Javelinas a season-best six-game winning streak and improved their record to 11-2 while the Lions fell to 5-8.

   “Everybody hung tough,” said Javelina head coach Pete Peterson. “I’m so proud of our guys. Sometimes when you lose a lead like that late, you can feel sorry for yourself and shut it down and we didn’t and we came out fighting and finally hit some big free throws down the stretch. We have a lot of guys on this team that want the ball when the game is on the line and I like that about our team. We had some guys really step up in a pressure game.”

   A jumper in the lane by Mulkey with 1:33 left in regulation gave the Hogs an 11-point lead, 77-66.

   But the Lions hit seven consecutive free throws in the final 23 seconds including three by Johnson with 1.8 seconds left to send the game into overtime.

   The Lions came out and grabbed an 83-80 lead midway through overtime and dunk by Lance Johnson with 38 seconds left in the extra period gave A&M-Commerce an 88-87 advantage.

   But Johnson got a rebound basket to give the Javelinas an 89-88 lead and Mulkey drew a charge from Champ Sylvester. Montalvo was then fouled and hit both three throws. Commerce missed a near halfcourt jumper at the buzzer to end the game.

   After making just 11 of 21 free throws in regulation, the Javelinas made 7 of 9 shots from the charity stripe in overtime.

   A&M-Kingsville out-rebounded A&M-Commerce 42-36 including 15 offensive rebounds.

   The Javelinas trailed by as many as eight in the first half before Love’s 3-point shot at the buzzer cut the lead to 36-35 at the intermission.

  The game featured 17 ties and 11 lead changes.

   The Javelinas travel to Northeastern State on Thursday.