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🆚 Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi
📆 Monday – January 5, 2026
⏰ 7 pm CT
🏟️ Sharp Gymnasium – Houston, Texas
📈 LIVE STATS
📺 ESPN+
🗒️ Game Program
Houston Christian University returns to the Sharp Gymnasium hardwood on Monday night for the first time since December 15 as it hosts Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in Southland Conference action. The contest with TAMUCC finishes off the first of nine straight weeks of Saturday/Monday SLC play leading into the conference tournament in Lake Charles, Louisiana which begins the second week of March. Tip-off on Monday night is scheduled for 7 pm.
Second-half struggles in San Antonio on Saturday afternoon led to a 73-56 defeat at the hands of long-time rival University of the Incarnate Word. The Huskies battled back from a double-digit deficit in the first half to trail by four at the break, but went cold in the second stanza as the Cardinals pulled away.
Trailing 30-19 midway through the first frame, the Huskies would hold the Cardinals to just two points over a six-minute stretch and conversely outscored the hosts 13-2.
Demari Williams went to the rack on two straight possessions to cut the lead to seven, 30-23 and his score with 3:51 to go cut the lead to four. Williams had 13 points in the first half, and HCU trailed just 36-32 heading to the break.
A lid on the basket for the Huskies led to a 17-4 run by UIW just moments into the second half. That run led to the hosts leading by as many as 17 as they methodically pulled away. The Huskies got to within 12 with just under seven to go, but another three-minute dry spell doomed any chances of a comeback.
Demari Williams broke his career-high in scoring for the second straight game, notching his first-ever 20-piece with 22 points. He went 10-15 from the field and tied a career-best going 2-4 from the arc. He was the lone HCU player in double-digits, as the rest of the team was just 13-45 overall and 2-12 from distance.
Kylin Green had eight points, five boards and four assists, while
Trent Johnson and
Demarco Bethea each chipped in eight points.
Craig Doty, the ninth head coach in program history, is now in his second season at the helm after guiding HCU to a 12-20 overall mark and 9-11 ledger in Southland Conference action in 2024-25. It was announced earlier in the week that
Doty has signed a contract extension through the 2029-30 season.
The Huskies doubled their success rate from the previous season, going from six total wins to 12 and from four victories to nine in conference play, finishing seventh in the league after being picked to finish last. HCU advanced to the Southland Tournament and saw
Bryson Dawkins named All-Conference as just the second player in program history to pick up SLC First Team honors.
Elijah Brooks, who missed the first four games of the season and has now missed the last two contest, still leads HCU at 12.3 points per night while also chipping in 4.5 boards, 3.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game.
Kylin Green is just behind him at 11.7 points to go with 4.1 boards and a Southland Conference leading 5.2 assists per game. He had a career-high 24 points in the loss over Thanksgiving week to Bellarmine and also registered a career-best 13 assists in the victory over ULM on November 13, the most in a game for HCU since Mike Moss had 13 against Chicago State in 2011. He flirted with a triple-double in the overtime home loss to Southeastern, finishing with eight points, nine boards and 10 assists, and is averaging 5.8 assists through four conference games.
A slow start to the season saw
Ryan Bartley score just 20 total points and shoot 2-16 from deep over the first four games of the season. Since then, Bartley has gone 20-50 for 40% over the last 10 games. He has posted seven double-figure scoring games with a season-best 16 in the conference opening victory at New Orleans and a career-high 4-8 showing from the arc in a home loss to McNeese. Bartley is now averaging 9.4 points per game overall.
Demari Williams had provided a huge spark off the bench as of late before making his first start of the season at UIW. Williams had a then career-best 19 points in the loss at No. 3 Iowa State and then broke it five days later with his 22 points in the loss at UIW on Saturday afternoon. Over his last six games, Williams is averaging 12.7 points and 4.2 rebounds in 23.3 minutes a game while shooting 55% from the field. He has scored in double-figures the last three ballgames setting a new career-high twice, averaging 18 points and 4.7 boards in just under 30 minutes per night while hitting at a 58% clip from the field over those three.
While putting just two players in double-digit scoring in all games, the Huskies have a quintet of players notching double-figures in conference play. Brooks (11.5) leads the way with Williams and Bartley both sitting at 11.4 ppg.
Demarco Bethea (10.6) and
Kylin Green (10.2) round out the handful, with
Trent Johnson not far behind at nine points per. Bethea leads the Huskies at six boards per night, with four others averaging in the fours (Johnson, Green, Brooks and Williams).
TAMUCC comes to Houston with a 7-7 overall record and a 3-2 record in the Southland after nipping rival UTRGV 63-59 in Edinburg on Saturday afternoon. Monday night marks the fourth game in eight days for the Islanders.
The Islanders are led by third-year head coach Jim Shaw. Corpus leads the all-time series with HCU 25-11 after taking two of three meetings in 2024-25. HCU won 76-72 in Houston in January before TAMUCC won 68-62 on the island to split the regular season. The Islanders then handed HCU a 62-48 defeat in the first round of the Southland Conference Tournament in Lake Charles.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi averages 75.5 points on the season but 66.8 through five conference games while holding opponents to just 64.4 in SLC action. The Islanders have a three-headed attack with 6'1 senior guard Nick Shogbonyo and 6'8 senior forward Sheldon Williams each averaging 11.3 points.
Shogbonyo is averaging 3.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists while shooting 44% from deep, while Williams leads the team in rebounding at seven caroms per night. Mason Gibson, a 6'0 grad transfer from Midwestern State, rounds out the trio at 10.4 points overall, but he pumps that up to 12.6 points while shooting 63% from the arc in conference action.
HCU is 8-7 in games played on January 5 with a 106-79 loss at Northwestern State in 2022 being the last time to play on the 5th. From 2015-2020, the SLC schedule fell on January 5 with HCU winning three in a row from 2015-2017, the last being an 81-74 win over Southeastern in Sharp Gym.
Following the Monday night affair, Houston Christian University will hit the road for it's next two. The Huskies trek to the Piney Woods next Saturday to take on Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches before a Monday jaunt to the Golden Triangle to face Lamar in Beaumont.
#DawgsUp
