KINGSVILLE, Texas – It was a tale of two halves for Texas A&M – Kingsville's men's basketball team that overcame an 11 point halftime deficit in route to a 66-59 victory over UT Tyler. 

The win is the Javelinas' (13-5 ,7-3) eighth win in a row, being led by Kendrick Washington and Dillon Gooding who both posted team leading 13 points. 

"We were not shooting the ball well," said head coach Johnny Estelle. "But I knew if we could just settle down and start seeing the ball go in we would have a better chance... you're obviously a better team when you score, but this crowd and community came out today and got behind us to help us win." 

The Javelinas struggled offensively in the first half shooting just 26.7 percent from the field while only going 2-for-13 in the period.  

UT Tyler took advantage of the poor shooting from the Javs taking an 11 point lead into the break with the score at 34-23. 

TAMUK came out hot in the second half as Marcus Jones-Green opened the half with a three-pointer cutting the lead to single digits. 

The Javelinas continued to shoot the ball well from the floor and put the clamps on the Patriots defensively to claw their way back into the game. 

Gooding and Washington were spark plugs in the comeback posting 11 and 10 points respectively in the half with the lead changing hands seven times with six ties. 

With the Javelinas up 56-55 with 2:57 remaining TAMUK ended the game on a 12-4 run to close out the win with the Patriots going zero of eight from the field to end the game. 

As a team the Javs shot 54 percent from beyond the arc going 7-of-13 and 10-for-21 on total shots from the field in the second half. The defense held UT Tyler to just 7-of-26 shooting from the floor in the second half. 

Additionally, the Javelinas shot 16-of-19 from the free throw line in the second half to secure the win. 

UP NEXT 

The Javelinas head to Silver City, New Mexico next Thursday night for a matchup with Western New Mexico.