Box Score
FORT SMITH, Ark.— Friday night in the Stubblefield Center, the Texas A&M International Dustdevils came out with a vengeance.
After dropping both regular-season games to St. Mary's Men's Basketball, the first in triple overtime and the second in double overtime, the Dustdevils kept the two-time defending conference-tournament-champion Rattlers just shy of advancing to the Heartland Conference Tournament championship game for the third year in a row.
St. Mary's ate away at an 11-point halftime deficit to claw within four points with two minutes remaining, but TAMIU pulled away once more in a 62-51 victory.
Texas A&M International, the tournament's No. 2 seed, will take on fourth-seeded Texas-Permian Basin in Saturday's championship game after the Falcons upset host Arkansas-Fort Smith on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in overtime.
J.J. Bolton (Jr., Beaumont, Miss.) led the Rattlers with 12 points.
Marvin Binney (Jr., Toronto, Ontario),
Fred Wilson (Sr., Seattle),
Isaiah Matthews, (R-Jr., Texas City, Texas), and
Ryan Thomas (Jr., Riverton, Utah) all chipped in six points apiece.
Binney led the Rattlers with five boards, while
Justin Alexander (Jr., San Antonio) and Matthews pulled down five each.
During the first half, the Rattlers were able to keep the game tight until the five-minute mark when the Dustdevils went on a 10-0 run to lead 31-20 at the break.
The first half was the only time during the game that the Rattlers saw the lead, for the Dustdevils were able to extend their lead to as much as 16 in the second half.
The second half was dominated by the Dustdevils, as they held the Rattlers to only 8-of-20 shooting.
A bevy of fouls were called in the game, as the Rattlers were hit with 29 and the Dustdevils with 23. The Rattlers were able to capitalize on their free shots, going 16 of 23 at the line.
The Rattlers were out-rebounded 34-31 and outscored in the paint 38-20, a rare occurrence for the squad.
The Rattlers will be tuned in Sunday evening to
NCAA.com to see if their ranking will secure an at-large bid to next week's NCAA Division II South Central Region Tournament.
