LUBBUCK, Texas – The No. 5/6 Angelo State Rams basketball team won a close overtime game against Lubbock Christian to remain undefeated on Thursday, December 10.

The Rams moved to 9-0 on the season with the 70-68 win over the Chaps. ASU is now one win away from tying the 10-0 record for the best season start in program history which was set in 2013. The Chaps slid to 6-2 with the loss.

Winning by its smallest point margin this season, the ASU offense shot 25-64 (39.1 percent) from the field, 7-16 (43.8 percent) from beyond the arc and 13-16 (81.3 percent) from the foul line. The Rams bench made a significant contribution outscoring the LCU bench 34-15. Defensively the team recorded seven steals, five blocks and pulled down 43 boards.

"I'm proud of our guys and to get a gutsy road win is great," said ASU Head Men's Basketball Coach Cinco Boone. "But, we know we can still improve in a lot of areas and at the half we talked about the other team winning the majority of the 50/50 and tough man balls. Then we came out in the second half, fixed it and played a lot harder".  

Despite trailing the entire first half by as much as 11 at 1:45 mark, the Rams opened the second half with an 11-3 run that closed the gap and brought the two teams back to a 33-33 tie. This run saw 5 points from DeVonte' Pratt, a Quay King 3-pointer and a pair of lay-ups from Thomas Tshikaya and Stedman Allen. Then, with 12:30 left in the game and down back to being down 37-41, Prince Foster launched a timely three to bring the Rams to within one. This was followed an Allen lay-up that would give ASU its first lead of the game. This did not deter LCU as they would fight back to take the lead once again, until an 11-0 run would allow for the third lead change of the game in favor of the Rams, 57-50. However, six straight points from the Chaps would force the five minute overtime.

The two teams would battle throughout the final extra period. After giving up the first two points to Lubbock Christian, the Rams pieced together an 11-4 run. Allen scored the final points of the run for the Rams rolling in a lay-up that would give ASU a five point lead at 70-65. This would be the final push that ASU would need to hold off the chaps even with an attempted last minute 3 point rally by LCU.

Allen led the squad with 18 points. He shot 7-16 from the field and 4-6 from the line. The senior currently leads the team averaging 6.2 field goals per game for a .557 clip. He has now tallied over 10 points in every game this season except two. The New Yorker also added two offensive and two defensive rebounds to his numbers for the night.

Omari Gudul recorded his second double-double of the season with a 10 point and 10 rebound performance in Lubbock. He continues to lead the team averaging 8.8 rebounds per game and has recorded 5 games this year with double-figure boards. He also added two blocks to his final numbers   

Prince Foster also hit double-digit points dropping in a team second 11 on the night. He was perfect from both the free throw line (4-4) and from outside the arc (1-1). The junior checked in with a team high three steals and three blocks for the ASU defense.  

Completing the game leaders for the night, Tre Bennett spread the ball around for a team high eight assists. The point guard also chalked up nine points for the night. He added 3 rebounds and two steals to the defensive efforts.

The Rams return to the Junell Center to take on McMurry Monday, December 14 at 7 p.m. before heading to Las Vegas to partake in the Holiday Hoops Classic on December 18 and 19.