KINGSVILLE, Texas – Junior Creighton Avery (Corpus Christi, Texas) set a new career-high for the second time in less than a week, pouring in 24 points and helping pave the way for a 73-62 victory for the Texas A&M-Kingsville men's basketball team over the UT Permian Basin Falcons on Friday night in Lone Star Conference action at the Steinke Physical Education Center in Kingsville, Texas.
"I thought we fought," said coach Johnny Estelle. "It wasn't always pretty, but we fought. That's why we have a bench and play several different alignments. The chemistry is what I was most happy with, in terms of effort and intensity. Creighton is playing phenomenal, but it's [also] the phenomenal glue guys and the role players. It's the little things guys do."
Avery bested the 22 points he posted on Jan. 2nd by shooting 8-of-14 from the field and 6-of-6 from the free throw line. For good measure, he added three assists and three steals, both team-highs. Senior Tre Flowers (Bryan, Texas) reached a new season-high with 17 points and junior Ellis Jones (Houston, Texas) shot 3-of-4 from beyond the arc for nine points.
The teams were nearly even in shooting percentage, but TAMUK hit 11-of-28 on treys, while limiting UTPB to 5-of-19, their lowest three-point output of the season. The Javs were also plus-eight in turnover ratio and they turned 17 turnovers by the visitors into 21 points.
The Falcons were the first team out of the gate, using five points from Trevion Lamar to take a 12-7 lead in the game's opening seven minutes. The Javelinas found their footing soon after, starting with a put-back by sophomore Wellington Stovall (Houston, Texas) that sparked a 17-2 run. Four of TAMUK's points during that stretch came from freshman Marcus Jones (Cheneyville, La.) and freshman Derek Luna (Palmview, Texas) capped it with a three to make the score 24-14.
UTPB answered the Javelinas' burst by scoring eight of game's next 11 points and closing to within five, only to see layups by Avery and junior Will Chayer (Corpus Christi, Texas) put them back behind by nine. UTPB scored the next four points, but the period's final score came on a buzzer-beating bucket courtesy of Avery for a 33-26 Hog edge.
The second half began with the visitors cutting their deficit to five on a Quinntez Grimes layup, but the Hogs came back with nine straight points, four of them from Flowers, for a 42-28 advantage.
With the score at 47-33, the Falcons strung together an 8-0 spurt to close within six, but Avery supplied the answer with five straight points. When five-points-in-a-row from UTPB brought the score to 52-46 moments later, triples from Flowers and sophomore Jake Majors (Corpus Christi, Texas) pushed TAMUK's lead back to double figures. After that, the closest UTPB could get was eight points.
The Javelinas and Falcons won't have to wait long to see each other again. They'll be back at the SPEC on Saturday for a game that will tip-off at 4 p.m. Fans can keep up with Javelina men's basketball by following @JavelinaMBB on Twitter and Instagram, liking Texas A&M University-Kingsville Men's Basketball on Facebook, subscribing to the Javelina Athletics YouTube channel and visiting Javelinaathletics.com. Watch your Javelinas live today on the Javelina Sports Network sponsored by Mendoza's Pharmacy.
