SAN ANTONIO – The St. Mary's Men's Basketball team again fought through a second-half lull, falling 78-66 to Texas A&M Kingsville on Saturday afternoon. The two teams were tied 36-36 at halftime, but the Rattlers were unable to overcome a 20-4 run by the Javelinas.
Both sophomore
Tyler Caron (Longview, Texas) and junior guard
C.J. Washington (Houston) led the Rattlers (2-6) with 15 points each, while senior
Mamady Djikine (Paris, France) added 12 and led the team with seven rebounds. Senior guard
Kobe Magee (San Antonio) led the club with five assists, junior
Ryan Leonard (Kerry, Ireland) led with three blocked shots and Caron had two steals.
Derek Luna led the Javelinas with 12 points and four assists, while Dayante McClellan led with seven rebounds and two blocks. TAMUK won the battle of the boards, 40-to-35.
The Rattlers take a break for the holidays, returning to the court on Dec. 29 against Ecclesia College at 2 p.m. The team closes out the 2021 calendar year with the Lone Star Conference opener against UT-Permian Basin on Dec. 31 at 4 p.m.
There were five lead changes and two ties by the first media timeout as the teams ran the floor. The Rattlers also had three dunks in the early going, two by Djikine and a putback dunk by Caron. A three-pointer in the corner by Presley gave the Rattlers a 17-15 advantage and they held the lead until 3:28 when Will Chayer made a pair of free throws for TAMUK. Brewer responded immediately with a three-pointer for the eighth lead change for the half. The Javelinas scored five straight, but Washington made three free throws to end the half with a 36-36 tie, the sixth of the day.
The teams started the second half slowly, with only eight points in the first four minutes, however six of them were for the Javelinas as they took a 42-38 lead off back-to-back three-pointers. TAMUK used a 20-4 run to build a 62-42 advantage. A small 9-2 run for the Rattlers cut the deficit to 13, 64-51, but the Javelinas again had an answer, scoring five straight to put the lead back to 69-51. Washington used an 8-1 run of his own as the team closed within 11, 70-59. The team's traded buckets to 74-61 when a triple by Magee made it a 10-point score, 74-64 with 18 ticks left, but the Rattlers could get no closer and fell 78-66.
INDIVIDUAL PLAYER & TEAM NOTES
- Prior to opening tip, senior Caleb Jordan (Midlothian, Texas) was honored for scoring his 1,000th career point earlier this month against Huston-Tillotson.
- Tyler Caron scored the 200th point of his career against the Javelinas and now has 204.
- The Rattlers have hit eight three-pointers in each of the last two games. Six different Rattlers have hit a three-pointer during the home stretch, led by five by Tyler Caron.
- St. Mary's has recorded three or more blocked shots in six straight games.
- All 10 players who saw action in the game had at least one rebound and nine of the 10 scored at least two points.
