SAN ANGELO - The Angelo State men's basketball team played its third game in just four days at the Lone Star Conference Tournament, falling just short of a championship in an 93-85 loss to Texas Permian Basin Sunday in Allen, Texas.
The Rams finished the season 17-13 overall with a 7-11 showing in the conference play with the loss in the tournament final. The championship was the first in LSC history for UTPB, who finished the season with a 26-6 overall record and a 14-4 showing in conference play, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA South Central Regional.
ASU forced the Falcons into 18 turnovers throughout the matchup and scored 27 points off those turnovers, adding in 28 points in the paint as well.
Quay King led the way on the offensive end for the Rams like he has most of the season, scoring a team-high 24 points and hitting four three-pointers. King added in three assists and a steal as well in his final game with Angelo State.
DeVonte' Pratt followed right behind King with 19 points of his own and a block and a steal as well. Shaquan Rhoades was the only other Ram to finish with double-digit points in the game, scoring 10 and adding three assists as well.
LSC Tournament MVP Sammy Allen scored the opening bucket in the game for UTPB on a layup, helping the Falcons jump out to an early 8-2 lead just three minutes into the game. The Rams slowly fought back into the game and closed the gap, eventually tying the Falcons at 20-20 after a three-pointer from Chase Riley and a pair of free throws from Rhoades with 7:45 left in the first half.
Falcon Johnnie Lacy responded with back-to-back threes for UTPB to put them back out in front by six. Another 7-0 just three minutes later pushed the gap to double digits once again, and the teams traded buckets the rest of the way until halftime to keep ASU in a 15-point hole heading into the locker room.
ASU opened the second half hot, going on a 14-5 run to cut the deficit to just six points with 16:02 remaining. Neither team could build much of a run for the next ten minutes of the second half, as the Rams got as close as six points twice and never fell behind by more than 11.
As the final three minutes wound down, both teams scored the majority of their points by way of the free throw line. UTPB continued the make the shots it needed to down the stretch to stay out in front and win the LSC Championship.
