KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Javelina men's basketball will take to the floor against the Texas A&M-International on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. with an opportunity to secure the East division title in the Lone Star Conference.
With a win, the Javelinas (19-9, 13-7 LSC) will secure their place as the top team in the East Division with one game remaining following a Tuesday night loss by St. Edward's puts the Hilltoppers one game behind the Javs with TAMUK owning the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Winning the East Division will guarantee the Javs the number two overall seed at the Lone Star Conference to be held at the Comerica Center in Frisco, March 3-6.
This past offseason the LSC adopted a new conference tournament format taking only the top eight teams from around the conference while splitting it into an east and west division with the top teams from each division taking the one and two seed.
The Hogs head into Thursday night coming off two critical home wins against Midwestern State and Cameron.
Junior guard Dillon Gooding shined in both games posting back-to-back team highs in points with 19 and 18 point performances respectively.
Gooding's points also came at crucial times for TAMUK, hitting multiple free throws under two minutes remaining in both games to seal the late season LSC wins.
As a team, the Javelinas' success has been centered around defense entering the week second in the LSC in scoring defense, turnover margin, and scoring margin trailing only West Texas A&M.
SCOUTING THE DUSTDEVILS
TAMIU (17-11, 10-10 LSC) comes to Kingsville needing a win to keep their LSC Tournament hopes alive currently sitting as the eighth seed while being tied with DBU at 10-10 in conference play and Western New Mexico one game back at 10-11.
The Dustdevils have the number one scoring defense in the LSC and is ranked 14th nationally in the category.
Senior guard, Jermaine Drewey leads the team offensively posting 10.7 points per game this season.
UP NEXT
The Javelinas close out the regular season with a trip to Laredo to take on the Dustdevils on the road on Saturday, 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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