On Tuesday, Nov. 20, the Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) men’s basketball team evened out their record, 2-2 with a win over the Dustdevils of Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) at home. The final score was 57-42. Sophomore and forward for the Javelinas Jemell Bradley led the team with 16 points making five shots out of seven attempts. Bradley hit a few three-pointers building the momentum for the Javelinas.
This delayed the comeback attempts of the Dustdevils after a slow first half from both sides offensively. Bradley had something to say about his goals before the game. “I’m just trying to keep my play consistent. I’m trying to do things to help my team win,” he said. He also went on to speak about the team’s next opponent St. Edwards. “I heard they were a good team, but I think our team is good… I think we can come out with a win,” he said. The momentum of the game was all up to the defensive side in the first half and somewhat in the second half as well until the Javelinas caught fire after a few minutes into the second half.
The Javelinas picked up the pace after a little scoring back and forth. It was evident there was no stopping them after a 13-0 run had the Javelinas up. Any hopes of a comeback the Dustdevils had, freshman and guard, Darius Mickens wiped those dreams away with a two-handed dunk. “I got excited, it was my first college dunk…I felt pretty good about it,” Mickens said. “We just need to build on the win…keep improving each week, get better and [keep] hope of making the national tournament.” Head coach Johnny Estelle was fired up as always and even with the lead, he was voicing frustrations left and right. “We’re a young team in terms of experience at this level…we’re trying to gel and find out who we are, we got to get better offensively [but] our defense, I’m really proud of,” he said.
The Javelinas shooting combined 43 percent from the field despite the slow start. They were eight-for-23 in the first half barely hitting one three-pointer out of nine attempts. The second half was a different story, the Javelinas fired off 14-out-of 28 shots and made four three-pointers on seven attempts. They boosted their free throw percentage by 50 percent in the first half to 83 percent in the second. Coach Estelle also addressed the slow offensive start from his team. “Defensively, we’ve been playing pretty good… [but] offensively, we’ll start executing and shooting better with more [games]….we got to get better, we got to shoot the ball better and that will come with time,” he said. The Lady Javelinas Basketball team also dominated over the Dustdevils earlier that evening with a score of 80-69. Both teams will be heading to Stephenville, Texas, for their games against Tarleton University today.
