TYLER, Texas – Junior Creighton Avery (Corpus Christi, Texas) put up a career-high 26 points and junior Will Chayer (Corpus Christi, Texas) tallied his second double-double of the season, but those were the lone bright spots for the No. 10 Texas A&M-Kingsville men's basketball team in a 61-60 loss to the UT Tyler Patriots in Lone Star Conference action at the Louise Herrington Patriot Center on Wednesday night in Tyler, Texas.
This brings in end to TAMUK's record-tying 11 game win streak and drops the team's record to 13-2. UT Tyler wins its sixth straight to improve to 8-9 and 7-9 in the LSC.
"UT Tyler did a great job tonight," said coach Johnny Estelle," and controlled the tempo. You have to give coach Wilson and his staff and players credit. We didn't shoot the ball well tonight and I truly believe the two week layoff did not help matters.
"We have to get back to executing and shooting the ball better. The good thing is we played hard and everything is correctable."
Avery's 26 points surpassed his old career-best of 24, which he set on Jan. 8th against UT Permian Basin. His 20 shots were six more than he'd taken in any previous game as a Javelina and he also topped the squad with five assists. Chayer's 15 rebounds were a new career-high for him and he shot 5-of-7 from the floor for 12 points.
There were seven ties in the first half and neither side held a lead larger than four points. The Hogs used a 7-2 burst late in the period to turn a 21-17 deficit into a 24-23 lead and the teams traded buckets over the final few minutes before an Avery jumper with 24 seconds remaining allowed TAMUK to take a 30-29 edge into halftime.
In the second half, the Javelinas started fast by scoring eight of the first 10 points to move ahead 38-31, but the Patriots immediately answered with a run of their own, a 14-4 stretch that put them in front by three. UTT would not trail for the rest of the night.
After the sides exchanged buckets twice, Avery drained a triple that pulled his team even with 3:51 to play and Chayer tied that game at 51 two minutes later from the charity stripe. Unfortunately, Soloman Thomas had an answer in the form of a trey for the Patriots that proved too much to overcome. The home team hit 7-of-8 free throws down the stretch to thwart any TAMUK comeback attempt.
The Javelinas were held to 38.8 percent shooting and were 4-of-19 on threes, their lowest marks since their only other loss, on Dec. 18th at Angelo State. The Patriots hit 43 percent of their shots from the floor and shot 87 percent from the free throw line.
TAMUK will have a chance to exact a measure of revenge on Saturday, when they tangle with UT Tyler in Kingsville at 4 p.m. Fans can keep up with Javelina men's basketball throughout the season 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.
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