KINGSVILLE – The Angelo State men's basketball team secured the third seed in next week's Lone Star Conference with a 53-41 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville on Saturday at the Hampton Inn Court.

ASU (18-8, 8-6 LSC) outrebounded the Javelinas 46-22 in the game and held them to the fewest points by an opponent this season. Bryan Hammond led the Rams with 16 points and eight rebounds, while Kenny Williams provided 14 points, seven rebounds, two steals and two assists.

"We won today with defense and rebounding," ASU head coach Chris Beard said. "Kingsville is difficult to play against because they control the tempo. You have to be disciplined for 40 minutes to compete against Kingsville. Today we were."

The Rams will play at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday in the first round of the Lone Star Conference Championships at the Allen Events Center.

ASU, which led 25-16 at halftime, never trailed in the second half after limiting the Javelinas to 32.5 percent shooting from the field and 3 of 18 on 3-pointers in the game. The win by the Rams evened the season series against A&M-Kingsville. ASU's previous best defensive work came by limiting West Texas A&M and Western New Mexico to 47 points earlier this season.

The Rams will be making their 27th tournament appearance, but first since 2010. ASU has won three LSC tournament titles, reached the finals six times and have a 15-23 all-time record in conference tournament play. The third seed is the highest the Rams have secured since being the No. 2 seed in 2009.

"Everything we do all year, as players and coaches, is to have a chance to compete in the month of March," Beard said. "We are looking forward to the conference tournament. I am happy for our guys, especially our seniors."

The Rams pushed their nine-point halftime lead to double digits with a Williams jumper three minutes into the half and led 32-19 with a Talkington 3-pointer. A Rashad Basey jumper momentarily had the game back to single digits with 13:45 to play, but Sutton responded with a layup and the game was never under an eight-point deficit for the Javelinas the final 10 minutes of play.

Reggie Sutton finished the game with 10 points and seven rebounds in a reserve role, while Chris Talkington scored six points and Omari Gudul had six rebounds and four points. The Rams struggled shooting throughout the first half (30.8 percent) and finished the game shooting 35.6 percent from the field. ASU made only two of their 11 3-point attempts. They made up for the shooting woes with their rebounding though, outscoring the Javelinas 14-0 on second-chance points.

Hammond led the Rams at halftime with 10 points and had four rebounds, while Williams had six points and five rebounds. Gudul contributed four points and three rebounds. ASU's nine-point halftime lead was its largest of the half and came despite the Rams shooting 30 percent from the field.

The 16 points by the Javelinas was the fewest points an opponent has scored this season against the Rams. The previous best for the Rams was 19 by West Texas A&M in the first meeting of the two teams in San Angelo. TAMUK was also limited to 30 percent shooting in the first half and went 1-for-8 from beyond the arc. ASU was 0-for-8 on 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes of play.

The Javelinas led a low-scoring first half 9-8 with 11:54 on the clock before the Rams went on a 4-0 run with two free throws from Williams and a Talkington layup. ASU took the lead to 16-11 with Sutton hitting a jumper and it was 21-13 with Hammond hitting a shot with 4:25 to play. Hammond hit the final shot of the first half with 1:14 to play in the half to give the Rams the nine-point advantage.

Basey and Ronald Scott led the Javelinas with nine points, while Daymon Warren scored seven points.