Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Beats Oregon State, Southland Opens 6-2
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 67, Oregon State 43
LUBBOCK, Texas - Texas A&M-Corpus Christi used runs of 15-0 and 14-0 in the combined with a stellar defensive performance to race past Oregon State Friday night 67-43 in the Duel in the Desert at United Spirit Arena. The Islanders are now 10-1 all-time in season opening games.
The 43 points are the second lowest allowed by the Islanders all-time. The low is 42 vs. Texas State on Jan. 18, 2007.
"Oregon State is a fine team," Islander head coach Perry Clark said. "The difference was us being able to hit our free throws in the first half while they struggled. It gave us a positive margin to work with."
Trailing 10-7 eight minutes into the game, the Islanders surged ahead by 12, 22-10, as they went on a 15-0 run. Marcus Hammonds ignited the run with a three-point basket in the left corner. Justin Reynolds' bucket at the 8:45 mark broke a 10-10 tie.
After Filip Toncinic and Hammonds combined to hit 3-of-4 free throws to make it 15-10, Kevin Palmer sandwiched a pair of lay-ins around a three-point bucket by Antonio Topps.
The Beavers pulled back to within seven, 22-15, with five straight points. Omari Johnson snapped the Islander run with a trey. Seth Tarver followed with a steal and bucket.
After a media timeout, the Islanders scored six straight points capped by an alley-oop by Demond Watt.
The Islanders would lead 30-18 at the intermission taking advantage of 2-of-10 foul shooting and 15 turnovers by the Beavers.
"Defensively, we were able to mix things up and show them some things that we hadn't shown in the past," said Clark, whose team limited Oregon State to 35 percent shooting. "They are a proficient offense team and we were able to disrupt them with our changing defenses."
A&M-Corpus Christi didn't let up in the second half scoring the first 14 points of the half to take a 44-19 lead. Kevin Palmer, who had 18 of his game-high 23 points in the second half, had seven points in the decisive run, while Terence Jones had five including a three-point basket to open the half.
Oregon State would get no closer than 22 points the rest of the game.
Aside from Palmer's game-high 23 points, he led the all players with nine boards as A&M-Corpus Christi edged the Beavers 35-34. Jones finished with 11 points in his first game as an Islander, while Demond Watt added 10. Seth Tarver led Oregon State, which had four starters back after winning the College Basketball Invitational a season ago, with 12 points and five steals.
The Islanders will be back in action on Saturday when they face the host Texas Tech Red Raiders at 6p.m. Texas Tech opened with an 88-49 win over South Dakota.
Northwestern State 77, East Texas Baptist 54
NATCHITOCHES, La. - Senior guard Damon Jones scored 16 points and junior guard Devon Baker added 15 off the bench Friday night as Northwestern State cruised past East Texas Baptist, 77-54.
It was the season opener for the winning Demons, who got scoring from 12 players as 11 played at least 11 minutes and nobody played more than 20 of the game's 40 minutes.
The game was an exhibition contest for ETBU, which shot just 32 percent and committed 30 turnovers. Josh Chambers led the Tigers with 15 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, while Jacob Turnipseed added 12 points.
Northwestern opened a 43-28 halftime lead. ETBU closed within 11 twice in the first nine minutes of the second half, but the Demons mounted a 16-2 run over the next four minutes to take command.
"We're making progress," Mike McConathy, Northwestern State's 11th-year coach, said. "The first half I was extremely excited, but we quit running the floor and defending as aggressively in early part of the second half. When we do those things, we're pretty effective. We've got to keep the tempo up.
"It was a lot more fun to see our guys enjoying what they're doing. They were pulling for each other. We still have a lot of work to do. We shot free throws horrendously (12-28)," he said.
The Demons shot 42 percent from the field and 33 percent on 3-pointers (7-21). Northwestern outrebounded ETBU 54-46, with Charles Clark spearing 10 boards to pace the Demons.
The crowd of 1,312 was energetic and enthused by several flashy plays by the Demons, something McConathy encouraged.
"I told them we needed to make a fan tonight, by that, I meant make a play that makes such an impression on somebody in the stands that they want to come watch us again. I think we did that as a group with our effort and certainly we had some exciting plays individually," McConathy said.
Northwestern plays next at Texas Tech on Thursday night, then hosts Houston Baptist Nov. 24.
Southeastern Louisiana 99, University of Science & Arts 50
HAMMOND, La. - Southeastern Louisiana's Patrick Sullivan recorded a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds and the Lions buried 10 3-pointers as it cruised past the University of Science and Arts (Okla.), 99-50, in the season opener Friday at the University Center.
Damon Forest came off the bench to score 19 points while newcomers Trent Hutchin and Gary Dixon added 13 and 11 points respectively for Southeastern (1-0), which shot 55 percent from the floor and 50 percent from behind the 3-point line.
USAO, which was led by Opelousas native Fred Savoie's 18 points, stayed close for the first eight minutes of the first half before Southeastern pulled away. A pair of free throws by Hammond's Stephen Burches with 12:41 remaining in the first half began a 24-2 run for the Lions, that turned an 11-11 deadlock into a 35-13 lead.
All 10 players who played for Southeastern scored by the 4-minute mark of the first half. The Lions took a 45-22 lead at halftime, capped by a dunk by Deshawn Patterson.
Southeastern came out on fire in the second half, converting on 65 percent of its attempts (22-for-34) and making 5 of 9 attempts from behind the 3-point line. Forest, who finished 7-for-13 from the floor, made three 3-pointers in the second half as the Lions built a 93-39 lead on a layup by David Ndoumba with 4:18 remaining.
USAO, an NAIA school, shot 31 percent (19-for-61) from the floor and committed 26 turnovers, which led to 40 points scored by Southeastern. New Orleans native Anthony Turner pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds for the Drovers while Savoie added seven.
Patterson dished out six assists for Southeastern while Robert Tibbs had three steals.
Southeastern will return to action Monday when it hosts Sun Belt Conference member Florida Atlantic in a 7:45 p.m. contest.
Central Arkansas 68, Hendrix 40
CONWAY, Ark - For the first time since 1992, Conway's oldest institutions of higher learning - Central Arkansas and Hendrix College - met on the men's basketball court Friday night. The Bears (1-0) picked up the series where they left off, having won the previous four matchups, with a 68-40 win in front of 1,367 fans at the Farris Center.
The Warriors took their last lead of the game at the 11:55 mark in the first half after a tip-in from senior forward Jesse Ford to go up 13-12.
The Bears then outscored Hendrix 18-8 the rest of the half, to take a 30-21 advantage into the break.
Junior guard Jared Rehmel of Jasonville, Ind. paced Central Arkansas with nine points at the half, all on three-pointers. The Bears outshot the Warriors 37 to 29 percent from the field in the opening period. Central Arkansas was 4-for-11 from behind the arc, while Hendrix struggled from outside, going 1-of-7.
In the second half, Hendrix senior Cal Rose made a three-pointer with 14:54 left, to cut the lead to 38-28.
The Bears answered with a 17-0 run during the next six and a half minutes to expand the lead to 44-28. Senior Mike Pouncy and junior center Chris Williams sparked the rally with four points each during the stretch.
Central Arkansas shot 40.5 percent in the half, compared to just 28 percent for Hendrix. After committing 13 turnovers in the first half, five of which were on player control fouls, the Bears limited their miscues to just two in the second period.
For the game, the Bears were 27-of-69 from the field for 39.1 percent. The Warriors were 16-of-56 (28.6 percent).
Rehmel led a trio of Bears with double-digit points. He finished with 16 points, including four 3-pointers, and had three steals. Williams and Pouncy each scored 10. Senior forward Mitch Rueter led all players with eight rebounds. Junior point guard Imad Qahwash recorded six points, six rebounds and four assists.
Rose led the Warriors with nine points, while Nick Heathscott and Scott Sherrill had seven each.
The Bears will host Tennessee Tech on Monday night as part of the Hall of Fame Showcase. Tipoff will be at 7 p.m. at the Farris Center.
Lamar 80, Huston-Tillotson 57
BEAUMONT, Texas - Justin Nabors made his return to the basketball court a memorable one with 24 points and 13 rebounds in leading Lamar to a 80-57 win over Huston-Tillotson at the Montagne Center Friday night.
After missing last season with a leg and elbow injury, the senior opened the season with his sixth-career double-double and was one point shy of his career high.
Sophomore Anthony Miles had 13 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, while classmate Charlie Harper finished with seven points and 10 boards. Freshman Donley Minor added 10 points off the bench with two 3-pointers.
Lamar (1-0) shot 48 percent from the floor and was 22-for-27 from the free throw line for 82 percent.
Huston-Tillotson held a 21-14 lead midway through the first half before Nabors keyed a 14-0 Cardinal run that gave Lamar the lead for good. After a three-point play from Harper, Nabors had back-to-back dunks within 16 seconds of each other before adding a jumper and two free throws as the Rams committed four turnovers in six possessions.
Lamar led 37-27 at the half and by as many as 27 with just under nine minutes left in the game.
Huston-Tillotson shot 32 percent from the floor and was led in scoring by Darrell Glover with 13 points and Davetom Odom with 10. Lamar also outrebounded Huston-Tillotson 52-29.
Lamar will play UTPA Monday night at 7:05 p.m.
Texas State 102, Howard Payne 67
SAN MARCOS, Texas - Playing in his first game at Texas State, Uriel Segura scored 15 points and handed out four assists to lead five players in double figures as the Bobcats defeated Howard Payne 102-67 Friday night in Strahan Coliseum.
The Bobcats opened their 2009-10 season in impressive fashion as Cameron Johnson, John Rybak and John Bowman added 12 points each to complement Segura's effort. Another newcomer, Dylan Hale, the only freshman on Texas State's roster added 10 points in his first collegiate start.
"I think that we can break this game into two segment," Texas State coach Doug Davalos said. "We can take a look at the first half and figure out what we need to do, and we can build on some things in the second half. In the second half, we defended a lot better with our feet and instead of our hands."
The game began with Howard Payne's Brandon Irwin hitting a pair of 3-point baskets as Howard Payne jumped out to an early 10-2 lead.
Texas State regained the lead as John Bowman hit a baseline jumper to give the Bobcats a 12-11 lead.
The two teams battled back and forth until Hale and Rybak hit back-to-back 3-point shots in the final minute to give the Bobcats a 51-43 lead halftime lead.
In the second half, Texas State turned up the defensive pressure as the Bobcats forced 10 turnovers and held Howard Payne to just 28 percent shooting after allowing them to shoot 58 percent from the field in the first half.
On the offensive end, Segura and J.B. Conley each scored nine points to lead Texas State. The Bobcats made 17 of their 34 field goal attempts and 12 of their 18 free throws to outscore the Yellow Jackets 51-24 in the second period.
Texas State travels to Tempe, Ariz., to play Arizona State in the first round of the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Tipoff Classic. That game will start at 10 p.m., Central, and be televised by ESPNU.
Duquesne 85, Nicholls 62
PITTSBURGH, Pa. - Nicholls overcame a ten-point first half deficit to take a 36-33 halftime lead, but a 21-7 second-half run by Duquesne gave the Dukes an 85-62 win in the season opener for both teams and spoil Nicholls' hopes for an upset in Pittsburgh on Friday night.
Nicholls (0-1) was led by junior guard/forward Anatoly Bose, who totaled 23 points on 35.0 percent shooting (7-for-20, 4-for-12 from three-point range), and sophomore guard Fred Hunter who posted 12 points and a team-high 7 rebounds in Nicholls first-ever contest against a current member of the Atlantic 10.
Duquesne's Melquan Bolding led all scorers with 25 points and the Dukes' Damian Saunders had a game-high 19 rebounds.
"We knew and we agreed as a team in the locker room at halftime that we were going to have to grind defensively and try to break them down," Nicholls coach J.P. Piper said. "In the heat of battle, we kind of got away from that. It's a painful lesson and a difficult lesson, because we felt like we had that game within reach. But, this team needs to go through this to be ready for Southland Conference play. This team (Duquesne) is a postseason team. They're going to be in the NIT or NCAA tournament. So, they're very good. They wore us down and that was the difference in the game."
The Colonels struck first as junior guard Kellan Carter laid in the first points of the season for a 2-0 lead. However, the Dukes responded by going on an 8-0 run to take the lead before Nicholls scored again.
Duquesne (1-0) dominated much of the first period as the Dukes' hard-charging offense drew 10 Colonel fouls in the first 12 minutes of the half. Duquesne went to the line 13 times in the first half and sank nine free throws while shooting an even 50 percent (11-for-22) from the field while leading by as many as 10.
However, down 25-15 with 7:47 left in the first, the Nicholls offense came to life. The Colonels went on a 21-8 run over the final seven minutes. Nicholls produced four steals and took advantage of 12 Duke turnovers in the opening period to reclaim the lead for the first time since the opening points of the contest and take a 36-33 advantage into the locker room at the half.
Bose scored 13 of his 23 points in the first half and Hunter overcame early foul trouble to add 10 more points to the Colonels' first half effort. As a team, Nicholls shot 46.7 percent (14-for-30) from the field and 30.8 percent (4-for-13) from three.
The early part of the second half proved to be a back-and-forth battle, as the Dukes caught up to Nicholls to tie the game at 41-41 with just over 14 minutes left. However, Duquesne seized the momentum by going on a 21-7 run to reclaim a 62-48 lead with 7:27 left.
Once again, the Colonels got into foul trouble by recording eight team fouls in the first 12 minutes of the second half. Duquesne went 6-of-9 from the line over that stretch and took advantage of eight second-half turnovers by Nicholls to stay in front for good.
Friday's contest opened a stretch of eight consecutive games away from home for the Colonels. Nicholls will return to action on Tuesday night when they visit Houston for a 7 p.m. tipoff at Hofheinz Pavillion.
Northern Colorado 101, McNeese State 73
HONOLULU, Hawaii - McNeese State fell 101-73 to the Northern Colorado Bears here at the Stan Sheriff Center during the season opener for both teams and the first game of the Rainbow Classic Tournament.
The Cowboys (0-1) were led by Junior Stephan Martin who was the top scorer in the game for both teams with 23 points. Nineteen of Martin's points came in the first half where he was four for six from beyond the 3-point line and two for two from the charity stripe. He would finish with five three pointers and was 8-for-15 from the field.
"Stephan played very well tonight," Cowboys coach Dave Simmons said. "He came out with a lot of energy and stepped up when they were putting pressure on Diego (Kapelan)."
Kapelan, last year's leading scorer for McNeese, had 11 points for the Cowboys and was 2-of-5 from 3-point range.
McNeese held a three point lead late in the first half after a P.J. Alawoya dunk put the Cowboys up, but the team went into the locker room at the intermission down by six and never managed to regain the lead.
"We came out and played hard in the first half," Simmons said. "But by the second half we just ran out of gas after running the full court press the whole game."
Alawoya had five rebounds during the matchup and put up 10 points of his own. As a team the Cowboys were 17-23 from the free-throw line and 23-58 from the field shooting.
Freshmen Brandon Regis and Dontae Cannon saw significant playing time for the Cowboys. Regis had 22 total minutes, 10 points, two steals and a block during the loss while Cannon had 13 minutes with 5 points.
"(Brandon) Regis is going to be good for us," Simmons said of his freshman. "He came out and played well and hard, just like he does in practices."
Up next for the Cowboys will be a Sunday night contest against Hawaii. The game will start at 11:30 p.m., Central.