CORPUS CHRISTI --- Houston Christian University dropped a physical back-and-forth affair with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, falling 68-62 at the American Bank Center on Monday nights. The Islanders rallied late in the second half and held on down the stretch to avenge a loss to the Huskies on January 20 and salvage a split of the season series.
Things got off to a strong start for the Huskies. An early pilfer from
Bryson Dawkins led to a coast-to-coast with a nifty finish to open the scoring. A double blocked shot sequence on defense from
Trent Johnson and then
Peyton Rogers denied Stephen Giwa twice at the rim, and the Huskies would then see Dawkins,
Elijah Brooks and
Julian Mackey can back-to-back-to-back triples to force a TAMUCC timeout less than four minutes into the game. Mackey would come out of that break with another trifecta and a foul and his four-point play pushed the HCU lead to 15-2.
Corpus would then find their footing, and a jump hook from Garry Clark plus the harm pulled the Islanders to within four, 15-11 with 11:45 to go in the first half. After resuming play, it was Clark again, this time with a steal and a finish on the break, giving the hosts an 11-0 run of their own. A screen-roll finish by
Porter Bazil ended the spurt and
Elijah Brooks hit his second three of the game to put HCU back up by five, 20-15, with 7:33 to go.
The teams would trade buckets for the next couple of minutes before a Jordan Roberts three-ball and Leo Torbor's driving layup gave TAMUCC its first lead of the night, 26-25. Dawkins responded quickly, nailing a deep three from the top of the key to give the Dawgs the lead right back. Garry Clark would make one of two before a Demarion Dennis drive to the cup gave the Islanders the one-point advantage again, 29-28.
A bucket from Brooks was followed by a Corpus turnover.
Julian Mackey then slithered to the paint where he dropped off a nice dime to
Trent Johnson for the flush. Johnson converted the free throw, giving HCU a four-point lead. HCU would take a two-point lead, 33-31, into the intermission.
TAMUCC would come out of the break with a quick 11-3. Jaden Walker hit a turnaround jumper just before the shot clock expired and then connected from long range to give the Islanders their largest lead of six, 42-36 approaching the first media of the second half. A layup from
Peyton Rogers stopped the bleeding, cutting the lead to four with 15:46 to play and out of the media, he would hit the glass again, cutting the lead to two.
Porter Bazil would then connect from deep to give HCU the lead back, and Rogers crashed the backboards again for a putback slam, edging the lead up to three hitting the 12-minute media.
Rogers would then hit a three from the top of the key but the Islanders came back with four straight, cutting the HCU lead to one, 48-47 with 8:51 to play. Dawkins would then convert a conventional three-point play followed by another strong move to the cup, pushing HCU's lead to four with 6:36 to play.
The two teams then got defensive. A three-minute stretch saw five total points scored, with a Demarion Dennis triple giving TAMUCC what would end up being the lead for good. Leading 56-55, Dion Wright-Forde came out of the media with one of two free throws and a Kam Parker drive, score and free throw put the Huskies down five.
A nice crossover and finish by
Elijah Brooks pulled HCU to within three with 2:19 to go. The Huskies then forced a turnover but Brooks missed a shot in the paint. TAMUCC came back down and Kam Parker knocked down a big three-pointer with two seconds on the shot clock to extend the lead to 63-57 with 1:23 left. The Islanders would hold on down the stretch for the win.
HCU's two-point lead at halftime turned into a eight-point deficit in the second half as TAMUCC turned the tables. The second-half wasn't kind shooting wise for the Huskies, who after shooting 48% from the floor and hitting 7-13 from long range, managed just a 33% clip from the field and 2-11 from long range in the second. Corpus meanwhile knocked down 50% from the floor for the evening while heading to the charity stripe with a 25-13 advantage in attempts.
Elijah Brooks led the losing effort for HCU with 16 points.
Bryson Dawkins had 15 points and eight rebounds and
Julian Mackey chipped in 10 points.
Peyton Rogers had nine points and a game-high nine caroms, six coming on the offensive backboard.
The Islanders were paced by Jordan Roberts, who scored 16 points in 21 minutes off the pine while Garry Clark registered 14 points and tied for game-high honors with nine rebounds. Kam Parker completed the double-digit trio with 10 points for TAMUCC, which improves to 17-11 and 10-6 in the Southland, where they are now tied with Nicholls in fourth place.
Houston Christian University is now 11-16 overall and has lost three in a row to fall even at 8-8 in Southland action. HCU remains tied with Northwestern State, which also lost on Monday night, dropping a 75-65 decision at home to Lamar. The two clubs sit one game ahead of hard-charging Stephen F. Austin and two ahead of UIW and UTRGV. SFA nipped East Texas A&M in Commerce for its sixth win in its last seven games while UIW knocked off the Vaqueros in Edinburg. Only three teams (McNeese, Southeastern and Lamar) have clinched a spot in the postseason tournament with four games left on the regular season slate.
HCU now returns home to Sharp Gymnasium for a pair of games this weekend. Saturday afternoon against second-place Lamar is the annual "Hustlin' Husky" Throwback game. The Huskies follow that up with "Senior Night" on Monday against SFA in a game that concludes the home portion of the 2024-25 slate.
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