Final Stats (.pdf)

KINGSVILLE, Texas – Angelo State guard Steve Moore scored a career-high 27 points, including seven in overtime, to lift the Rams to a Lone Star Conference South Division win on the road against Texas A&M-Kingsville, 82-73, at Kingsville Hampton Inn Court late Wednesday night. The game marked a school-record sixth overtime contest of the season for the Rams, who improved to 2-1 in LSC South competition.

Moore was on point from the field where he hit 7-of-12 shots and also hurt the Javelinas (5-10, 0-3 LSC South) from the free-throw line with a 10-of-13 effort. The senior from Little Rock, Ark., was perfect in overtime for the Rams (6-9, 2-1 LSC South) with a three-pointer and four made free throws. Trey Mays (9) and Andre Adams (10) also reached career-highs while helping Angelo State improve to 3-3 in overtime contests this year.

“He's making shots now, if he can do that, we're going to be hard to beat,” Angelo State head coach Fred Rike said of Moore. “We couldn't stretch our lead out. I still think this team has a high ceiling. We're still making some mistakes and if we can eliminate those mistakes, we'll be right in the thick of the conference race. Right now, we're ahead of where we were at last year at this time. This is a huge win for our guys. We're doing it with limited numbers right now. I'm proud of our guys; they brought it to the house.”

Ridge McKeither and Richard Thomas both reached double figures for the Rams with 12 points each, and Joey Lenox chipped in eight in just his second game this season. From the outset of the contest it looked like McKeither, not Moore, would assume his role as leading man for the Rams as he scored eight of the team's first 12 points as ASU surged to a seven-point lead a little more than four minutes into the game. Meanwhile Moore didn't even make his first bucket until four minutes before the end of the first half and contributed four points to ASU's 33-31 lead at the break.

Even eight minutes into the second half, after the back-and-forth game reached its fifth tie, Moore still hadn't asserted himself as the Rams leading scorer. Moore, who entered the game averaging 9.2 points per contest, piled up 13 points in the final 11 minutes of the game and collected an assist with a nice pass to Thomas to tie the game at 69-69 at the end of regulation.

In overtime, the Rams got a free throw by McKeither, a three-pointer from Moore and a free throw from Mays before the Javelinas got their first point and built a five-point advantage. McKeither used a jumper in the paint to answer Kingsville's first bucket in overtime from Ryan Wallace and all that was left for ASU was to take care of the ball and hit free throws. Moore hit four in a row for the Rams and Adams added two at the end of the game. The nine-point margin of victory was ASU's largest lead of the contest.

Adam Morris (15), Pierce Brooks (11), Antwan Mullins (10) and Mark Stevenson (10) all reached double figures for the Javelinas. Marcus Ford pulled down a game-high seven rebounds in the losing effort. Angelo State led in most statistical categories including points in the paint (32-28), points off turnovers (17-13), second-chance points (7-5) and total rebounds (32-29).

Angelo State returns to the Junell Center for a match-up with West Texas A&M on Saturday (Jan. 22). Saturday's contest marks the kickoff of ASU's True Blue spirit campaign, with a pre-game RamJam tailgate planned along with other activities. A detailed schedule can be found at AngeloSports.com.

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