KINGSVILLE, Texas (Men's Basketball) – With the Javelina faithful on their feet, the resilient Hogs nearly came from behind to upset No. 25 Our Lady of the Lake University (2-1) after trailing by as much as 25. However, the Saints escaped Gil H. Steinke Physical Education Center-Kingsville Hampton Inn Court with an 86-80 victory on Tuesday evening.
Texas A&M University-Kingsville (2-2) fell to 2-2 on the year and 2-2 on its home floor.
DJ Weathers finished with 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting and 23 of his points came in the second half.
Jamar Goodwin added 22 points and three steals,
Duan Wright finished with six rebounds, five assists and four steals and
Brandon Etienne added five swipes.
Troy Jones was a rebound shy of a double-double, recording 10 points, nine rebounds and three blocks.
"The crowd was great but we cannot dig a whole this big and come back," said head coach
Johnny Estelle. "You have to give Our Lady of the Lake credit. They are a well-coached group but we cannot play like we did in the first half. Right now, we are a two-half group. We have to get back to the drawing board because we are a new team. Again, I thank all of Javelina nation for supporting us and tonight, the crowd was amazing and gave us a huge momentum boost."
The Javelinas rode a 17-2 run in a four-minute span during the second half to cut their deficit to 60-56 with 11:58 remaining. Weathers scored 11 of his 13 points in the opening minutes of the second half. Ten points came off turnovers and nine were because of TAMUK's relentless efforts off the glass. However, the press defense by the Saints held the Javelinas scoreless for three minutes until a Jones block led to a Goodwin three-pointer, cutting Texas A&M-Kingsville's deficit to 10 with 8:15 left to play.
The Javelinas caused 14 turnovers in the second frame, none bigger than Wright's following a Weathers jumper. The steal led to an
Austen Bradshaw fast break layup that cut the game to three with just under three minutes left to play.
A second run (6-0) brought the Javelinas to single digits as Our Lady of the Lake led 73-65 with less than five minutes remaining. After free throws, Weathers drained his second triple of the game for his 18th point of the game. The Javelinas went into the final media timeout of the game down 75-68 with 3:47 left.
Five Saints reached double figures, led by De'Quentin Greer's 19 points. With the win, OLLU is now 1-1 all-time against Kingsville.
In their final home game of the 2014 season, the Javelinas came out cold and struggled holding onto the ball, committing 16 turnovers that led to 21 Saint points. At halftime, the Hogs had an uphill battle, trailing 52-29 with just one 30 second timeout remaining.
The Blue and Gold will spend Thanksgiving weekend at the Tarleton State University Thanksgiving Classic, taking on Northwest Nazarene University (1-3) on Friday, Nov. 28 at 5 p.m. and Pittsburg State University (1-2) on Saturday, Nov. 29 at 5 p.m. Friday's and Saturday's contests will be the first time that Texas A&M-Kingsville takes on both opponents.
The Javelinas will not return to the SPEC until Jan. 3 when they host Schreiner University at 3 p.m.
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