KINGSVILLE, Texas – Texas A&M – Kingsville's men's basketball team won its seventh straight game on Thursday night defeating Dallas Baptist by a final of 66-48.
"Well, I mean in any winning streak, you're going to have to win some games that are very ugly, or may not be very pleasing to the eye," said head coach Johnny Estelle. "Tonight it was just a knockout, drag out fight... you have to be on your P's and Q's and you have to play as a unit and you have to play for 40 minutes. I think that's what we did. I thought defensively we put together a pretty good, hard-nosed, tough effort.
The Javelinas (12-5, 6-3 LSC) were all over the Patriots when on defense forcing 17 DBU turnovers showing how they have earned an LSC high forced turnovers per game this season.
Additionally, TAMUK held DBU to only 27% shooting from the floor on the night.
C. J. Smith led the Javs offensively, scoring a team high of 12 points, while Kendrick Washington led the team in rebounds with eight boards.
Jake Majors got things going for the Javelinas opening the game with a deep three-pointer which proved to be on of only two made in fifteen attempts in the half for TAMUK.
It was a low scoring affair in the first half, as both teams went through several minute droughts without field goals as TAMUK took a narrow 28-27 lead into the half time break.
In the first half both teams shot just 31 percent from the floor, with Isaiah Payne leading the Javs with 6 total points.
The second half would be a different story however as the Javelina defense stepped up to hold DBU to shooting only 6-25 from the field in the second half. Smith began attacking the basket scoring 9 of his 12 points in the second half going 3-of-6 from the floor.
A 10-1 run by the Javelinas five minutes into the second half saw TAMUK grow the lead to 10 points at 44-34 with 12:28 remaining.
DBU's in ability to score from the field hindered the Patriots greatly as they were unable to cut the lead down to more than seven points the rest of the game.
While not shooting the ball incredibly well as a team for most of the game, the Javs ended the game on an 11-2 run over the last four minutes of the game going 5-for-5 from the field while the Patriots only went 1-for-6 over the same stretch of time.
The late burst was more than enough to seal TAMUK's seventh straight win with final score of 66-48.
UP NEXT
On Saturday, the Javelinas welcome the Patriots of UT Tyler to Kingsville on Saturday, Jan. 14 with tip-off set for 3 p.m.
To keep up with the Javelinas all season long visit javelinaathletics.com to find links to live stats and streaming information as well as a recap at the end of each contest. Fans can learn more about the Javelina men's basketball team 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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