The Javelinas from Texas A&M Kingsville failed to take down the Mustangs basketball teams for a second time. The double-header took place on Feb. 1 at D. L. Ligon Coliseum.
Women’s Basketball
“It feels really good to win against this team again. We missed a couple on the road last week, so it’s good to come back and get a team win to get ready for Angelo on Saturday,” Kristin Rydell, guard and nursing senior said.
The women’s team was able to put a five point gap on the final score, while the men’s team trampled over Kingsville with a 22 point difference. Both teams did managed to each finish with 66 points on the board. The women’s final score was 66-61 and the men’s final score was 66-44.
“It feels good to win again, we had four guys scoring and defense was really good,” Brandon Neel, senior guard said. “Everyone was filling the gaps and talking, so it felt pretty good.”
Micheline Mercelita, forward and kinesiology senior, made the first basket at the 9:01 mark of the women’s first quarter. This was the first of four times the game was tied. Before the game had reached the five minute mark, Whitney Taylor, forward and education senior, made two three-pointers to make the score 8-4 with 7:58 left in the first quarter.
Rydell and Jasmine Richardson, guard and exercise physiology senior, gained a combined total of three foul shots in the first quarter. At the 1:54 mark, the score was tied 11-11. Beating out the buzzer with just over a second left, Richardson shot the ball and made the basket to bring the score to 16-13.
The second quarter began with a basket by Chelsea Adams, forward and criminal justice junior. At the 9:02 mark Richardson stole the ball and brought it down the court for the basket. With 5:51 left, Anni Scholl, guard and marketing junior, made a three-pointer to bring the score to 28-20. Within the last two minutes before halftime, Rydell made two three-point shots and the score was 34-34 going into the half.
“When they started coming back we started, we started rushing our offensive side and not being where we needed to be on our defensive side. But we just took a deep breath and focused on what we needed to do,” Richardson said.
The third quarter of the women’s game began all tied up at 34-34. At the 8:22 mark Hannah Reynolds, center and health science freshman, scored and not long after at the 7:00 mark, Richardson made a basket. The score at the 5:00 was 41-37. Avery Queen, forward/center and biology senior, scored just ten seconds later to up the score to 43-37. Adams finished off the third quarter with a basket at the 1:03 mark.
The fourth quarter started with a ten point difference at 53-43, there seemed to be an easy win in sight. At the 4:18 mark Mercelita scored bringing the score to 59-54. With 2:15 left, the score 59-56, Kingsville made a three-pointer and the game is tied 59-59. 1:38 to go and Adams is up for foul shots, she makes one of two and bring the women up by one point. Mercelita scores again to bring the score to 62-59, but with still 1:01 left just another Kingsville three-pointer could bring overtime. But not for these women, Mercelita scores with :24 left. To end the game Adams makes two foul shots and the final score is 66-61.
“Our communication could have been better. Before Saturday we need to work on rebounding and our post defense. The girl we play this weekend is about six foot, so our post need to get better,” Adams said.
Men’s Basketball
The first half of the men’s game started off quick. At the 19:38 mark , Wanaah Bail, forward and undecided junior, dunked the ball and made the starting score 2-0. At the 17:13 mark Bail rebounded the ball and passed it to Trey Kennedy, guard and psychology senior. Kennedy immediately got the ball to the hoop and brought the score 4-2. Not far behind that Neel and Devante Pullum, guard and business senior, both made three-pointers to wedge the gap in the score by ten points. Logan Hicks, sophomore guard shot the ball for two points and brought the score to 17-6.
The men’s defense held Kingsville from getting ahead of them throughout the game. Pullum added another three-point shot at the 5:19 mark, and with just :19 left to go Hicks was fouled. He made one out of two foul shots and the score at the half was 22-17.
“We guarded the ball much better and we played very well on the defense end. They only scored 44 points, we usually aim to keep them under 60 but today they were under 50,” Hicks said.
The second half of the men’s game started with a five point difference. Romello Walker, sophomore guard, made a basket at the 17:23 mark. Throughout the second half, the defense did not let Kingsville become a threat. At the 10:01 mark, Hicks made a three-point shot and brought the score to 41-32. Just a minute after that, Ola Ayodele, junior guard/forward, added two points to the score then made a foul shot. At the 8:27 mark the score was 46-32. Several seconds later at the 8:11 mark, Josh Huntley, forward and business senior, stole the ball and dribbled down court without defense. He went to lay up the ball and dunked it into the basket. Just after at the 7:36 mark, he scored again to bring the score to 50-32. Pullum finished the score off with :54 left to the game, the final score was 66-44.
“We did good as a team, we finally broke through and got the things we couldn’t get right at the beginning of the season right,” Huntley said.
The basketball teams will face another double-header on Saturday, Feb. 3 against Angelo State. The women’s game will start at 2 p.m. and the men will play directly after that at 4 p.m..
