KINGSVILLE, Texas – Senior Tre Flowers (Bryan, Texas) matched his season-high with 16 points and his classmate Dayante McClellan (Austin Texas) snatched 10 rebounds to lead the Texas A&M-Kingsville men's basketball team to a come-from-behind 74-70 victory over the DBU Patriots on Saturday evening in Lone Star Conference action at the Steinke Physical Education Center in Kingsville, Texas.
The Hogs have now won three-in-a-row to improve to 14-8 in the regular season and 5-6 in conference play. They also have a one-and-a-half game lead on their closest pursuer for the final spot in the LSC Tournament. DBU is 17-9 overall and 10-4 in the LSC.
Flowers' 16 points came on 6-of-8 shooting and he was 4-of-7 from beyond the arc with five rebounds. Junior Creighton Avery (Corpus Christi, Texas) also finished with 16, his third straight game at that total, after hitting 5-of-9 from the field and 3-of-3 on triples.
Sophomore C.J. Smith (Mansfield, Texas) added 10 points and also logged four assists. McClellan's 10 rebounds were by far the most of anyone on Saturday and he logged eight points and three helpers.
In the first half, DBU used an 8-0 run to build and 18-10 lead and they held on to their lead for the remainder of the period. The Javs responded with a 9-2 spurt that brought them to within one and they later tied the score at 30, but the Patriots didn't let their hosts move ahead and took a 37-34 edge into halftime.
After the break, DBU put up 12 of the first 16 second half points to increase their lead to 49-38, but the Hogs came back with eight straight points, with six of those coming from Smith.
The Patriots later upped their lead back to nine at 57-48 with 11:15 to play, but that's when the Javs seized the momentum. TAMUK reeled off 14 straight points, a run that started with six straight points from junior Sammy Brooks (Dallas, Texas) and ended with back-to-back buckets from Avery, the last of with was a trey to give the home team a five-point lead.
With 6:05 to play, the Javelinas still owned a 67-63 advantage, but DBU crept in front by one after a three-point play and a pair of foul shots. Both teams then went scoreless for more than two minutes before Flowers buried his team's final triple of the night to thrust TAMUK ahead. Moments later, however, DBU tied the score from the charity stripe.
Smith broke that tie by knocking down both ends of a 1-and-1 with the clock at 1:10, then Javelina stop gave the Hogs the ball back. After a missed jumper, McClellan secured an offensive rebound that forced the Patriots to foul and two more Javelina foul shots and one more defensive stand locked up a Blue and Gold triumph.
"We got some steals and stops and went down and converted," said coach Johnny Estelle. "We hit some big shots. We've got a unique team. We don't really depend on one person. Those are the kind of kids we have. They want to win more than me and its always good to see them come out on top."
The Javelinas conclude the regular season on the road, starting their road trip with meeting with West Texas A&M on Thursday. 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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