Men’s basketball sweeps Kingsville
The men’s team needed its win against Texas A&M-Kingsville to bounce back from a two-game losing streak, making it a tight physical game Saturday night — and the men were not going to take a defeat.
Right from the start it was a battle. In the first half the lead changed eight times before MSU took over, leading Kingsville 42-35 going into halftime. Coming out in the second half, the men never surrendered the lead. Four minutes into the half Tavarion Nix and DeVaughn Jones blocked the Javelinas four times, sparking an aggressive defense that refused to let the Javelinas back into the game.
Junior point guard Kevin Wagner said, “Lately they’ve been calling the games tight, but today they just let us play. That’s how we practice so it’s fun to play like that.”
The men defeated the Javelinas 83-62. The win moves MSU to 4-2 in Lone Star Conference play and 12-6 overall.
Women now 12-7; 4-4 in conference
The women’s team delivered its second straight victory improving to 4-4 in the Lone Star Conference and 12-7 overall.
At the start Kingsville jumped ahead until MSU took command in the 10th minute. Junior guard Lisa Hampton put up 12 points in the half with her last three points giving MSU its biggest lead of the half with nine points going into halftime up 42-33.
In the second half the women were slow at the start.
Dianna Jones, a junior guard from Hewitt, Texas, said, “Our coach talked to us and told us to calm down play our ball.”
Jones matched a career high by dealing out 10 assists.
The players took care of the ball and made some key passes to pick up the pace to extend the lead by 20 points with four minutes left.
With 1:18 left in the game MSU scored for the last time and MSU defeated the Javelinas 81-59, the team’s biggest win of the season.