ALLEN, Texas – The No.11/22 Angelo State men's basketball team downed Texas A&M – Kingsville, 87-86, to advance to the semifinals of the Lone Star Conference Championship Tournament.
The Rams improved to 22-5 on the season and 19-25 in the LSC Championship Tournament. Angelo State is now 8-1 against the Javelinas and 4-2 in the Allen Center during postseason play. The win also marked Cinco Boone's first LSC Championship Tournament win as a head coach. With the loss TAMUK was eliminated from the tournament and finished its season 11-15 overall and 3-11 in the conference.
"What a great first game and a great way to start March," commented Head Coach Cinco Boone. "It was a gutsy performance by our team. I thought Kingsville came in with confidence and we have a lot of respect for them. We are now looking forward to watching the games tomorrow to see who we are going to play."
The ASU offense's 87 points was the most by Angelo State since scoring 104 in the 2001 LSC Tournament Semifinal against Midwestern State. As a team the Rams shot 44.6 percent from the field, 26.3 percent from beyond the arc and 72.7 percent from the charity stripe. Four Rams scored double-figure points for the game, with two players crossing the 20 point threshold.
Senior Stedman Allen got things started for the Rams in the first half dropping in a jumper. The two teams battled throughout the first half with the lead changing hands five times. ASU's largest lead of the half came at the 10:43 mark when guard Prince Foster slammed the ball to give the Rams a 20-14 lead. Angelo State entered the half tied with TAMUK at 37-37.
Down 43-42 in the second half with 17:39 left in the game, Angelo State's Gustavs Puhovs kicked off a 22-4 run sinking a pair of foul shots. This gave the Rams their greatest lead of the game with a score 65-47. The Javelinas would fight back and chip away at the ASU lead pulling to within three at the 54 second mark. The Rams thwarted TAMUK's advance and closed out the game with six straight free throws from Foster, Tre Bennett and Quay King.
Foster and Bennett led the squad each scoring 20 points on the night. This marked Foster's career high and Bennett's eighth time scoring at least 20 points in a game this season. This was also Bennett's 18th straight game scoring in double-figures. The point guard also added four assists and a steal to his numbers for the night. Foster, who was 6-8 from the field and 8-8 from the stripe, recorded his ninth game of the season with double-digit points. He grabbed six boards and added two blocks and a steal to his totals.
Rounding out the top players for the afternoon was Quay King, Gustavs Puhovs, Stedman Allen and Shaquan Rhoades. King sunk 11 points which marked his 12th game this season dropping at least 10 points. Pohovs was the final double-digit player, recording 10 points for his 5th double-digit game of the season. Leading the defensive efforts for the Rams was Stedman Allen and Shaquan Rhoades. Allen led the team with eight boards for the night. He also tallied seven points for the game. While, Rhoades led the team pocketing three timely steals.
The Rams return to action on Friday, March 4 at 2:30 p.m. to face the winner of the Thursday, March 3 game between Texas A&M – Commerce and Tarleton State. ASU split its regular season series with each of these teams. After falling early in the season to the Texans, 85-67, in Stephenville the Rams came back and defeated TSU in a double overtime thriller on the Stephens Arena at the Junell Center. In its second conference game of the season Angelo State fell to TAMUC , 93-88, at home. The Rams then returned the favor by defeating the Lions, 90-80, in Commerce for the first time since 2008.
Friday's game will be broadcast live on 1260AM KKSA with Jeremy Bryant on the call.
