The men’s basketball team (7-12, 6-3 LSC) owned the night in the sixth consecutive win against the Cameron Aggies on Saturday with a score of 70-44. Head coach Johnny Estelle put every single Gold jersey on the court to represent what it is like to be a Javelina from Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
The Lone Star Conference is home to one of the toughest conferences with distance and talent within every university. The Javelinas started off a tad slow at the beginning of conference play. However, despite the odds, the big blue and gold, after Saturday’s game obtained their sixth conference win in a row which can set the tone for the rest of the season.
Estelle is the root of success for the Javelinas and is extremely proud to see his team radiate and thrive off the seniors this year.
“I couldn’t have had any better senior leadership than I do right now,” Estelle said. “You’re only as good as your leadership, and you’re only as good as the guys playing with you and right now, I’ve got the best in the world”.
The Javelinas forced 19 points out from under the Aggies in steals and had an astonishing 43 points off the bench. Junior guard Rashon Thomas had a career high of 22 points against Western New Mexico and has more where that came from to leave on the court for his senior teammates.
“We’re going all out and buying in. I know how much this means to them [seniors], the season is about half way over, so we need to keep putting it all out and making this the most for them,” Thomas said.
Darius Mickens, freshman guard out of Willis, Texas, has put big numbers on the board for the Javelinas. Back-to-back wins off a slow conference start has molded Mickens to the player he is evolving into.
“These six games have really helped, matured and prepared us to make a deep run in the national tournament,” Mickens said. The freshman put up 11 points in 21 minutes for the Javelinas on Saturday.
The men are back in action and plan to pack the house in Kingsville on Thursday, Jan. 31 against A&M-Commerce. Game time is 7:30 p.m. at the SPEC.