KINGSVILLE, Texas - Texas A&M-Kingsville's men's basketball team, took the No. 24 West Texas A&M Buffaloes all the way on Thursday night, before eventually falling by a final score of 71-65.
"I think our kids played hard and competed," said head coach Johnny Estelle after the loss. "We didn't always do the smartest things in the world but when you're playing good competition... give coach Brown and them credit... We didn't play great, but we fought and played hard there are some things we need to work on naturally in regard to chemistry and execution as a team, but we will learn from this."
With loss, the Javelinas now drop to 5-4 on the season and 1-2 in Lone Star Conference play while the Buffaloes improve to 5-2 on the season and 3-0 in the league.
It was a difficult shooting night overall for the Hogs, only managing to shoot 18-52 from the floor on the night, and an even worse 4-16 from beyond the arc.
The duo of Damion Thorton and Zach Toussaint led the way for the Buffaloes in the win, scoring 18 and 15 points respectively and combining to shoot 9-19 from the field and 14-16 from the charity stripe.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The game began as a tight back and forth affair, with the Javelinas making out a small margin of a lead. The Javelina's largest lead of the half would come at just under the halfway mark of the first half as Creighton Avery's second chance layup put TAMUK up 12-6.
The score would fluctuate around this margin or slimmer for much of the half as each team seemed to always have the answer for the other. The Buffaloes however, scored 8 out of the last 10 points in the half including a buzzer beating jumper from Toussaint cutting the Javs lead down to two at 34-32.
The Buffs then opened the second half with a three pointer to take a one-point lead and would never trail again in the game.
Impressive shooting by the Buffs from beyond the arc at a mark of 66.7% in the second half would help ensure the win despite the Javs' best efforts which saw them cut a lead that at one point reached 11 down to three in the last minute of the game.
Seven missed second half free throws would prove to be critical for the Javelinas who were unable to finish off the comeback, falling by a final of 71-65.
UP NEXT
The Javelinas now will host Lubbock Christian on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the SPEC in a rematch of last season's Lone Star Conference Tournament Championship.
