KINGSVILLE, Texas – Senior Tre Flowers (Bryan, Texas) and sophomore C.J. Smith (Mansfield, Texas) both scored in double figures and junior Will Chayer (Corpus Christi, Texas) dished out nine assists as the Texas A&M-Kingsville men's basketball team pounded out a 74-67 victory over the Oklahoma Christian Eagles on Saturday evening in Lone Star Conference action at the Steinke Physical Education Center in Kingsville, Texas.
The Javelinas now own an overall record of 10-4 and are 1-2 in the LSC. OC's record drops to 6-12 overall and 3-5 in conference play.
"I thought we shot the ball better," said coach Johnny Estelle. "We hadn't shot the ball particularly well consistently of late. We had some guys come alive, especially Derek Luna. C.J.'s been very consistent, but then I saw Tre Flowers, he came back. He didn't have a great shooting night on Thursday, but he really put some work in and showed out tonight. We hit 12 threes and when we're doing that, we're clicking pretty good."
Flowers 16 points were a season-high and came on 6-of-11 shooting, while Smith tallied 15 points. Chayer spent the night filling up the stat sheet, with his nine assists accompanied by eight points and six rebounds. Freshman Marcus Jones (Cheneyville, La.) led the Hogs on the glass with eight rebounds.
The Eagles used six straight points in the opening minutes to grab a 10-6 lead, but TAMUK's response was a 10-0 run, bookended by triples courtesy of Flowers and Smith. OC eventually evened the score at 22 and later moved ahead when a Moun'tae Edmundson three made the score 27-25.
The momentum returned to the Javelinas thanks to an 11-2 run that included five points from Flowers and a pair Chayer buckets. That burst enabled the Hogs to reach halftime in possession of a 38-33 edge.
The second half started with the Javelinas stretching their lead to 10 in the opening minutes, propelled by three-pointers from freshman Derek Luna (Palmview, Texas) and Flowers. The Eagles refused to let their hosts blow the game open however, quickly slicing their deficit in half and later closing to two at 50-48 with 10:30 to go.
That comeback attempt was thwarted when junior Sammy Brooks (Dallas, Texas) and sophomore Jake Majors (Corpus Christi, Texas) both hit from deep. Undeterred, OC reduced their deficit to three multiple times in the final 10 minutes, but the Javelinas refused to let go of the lead. After a Nyk Madison layup made the score 64-61 with 2:09 on the clock, Jones recorded a three-point play to increase the difference to six and Javelina free throws iced the game soon after.
The Javelinas will now prepare to hit the road, as their next game is scheduled for Thursday at Texas A&M-Commerce at 7:30 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.
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