HAMMOND, La. – Texas A&M-Corpus Christi scored 52 second half points to surge past the Southeastern Louisiana University men's basketball team, 86-71, Thursday night at the University Center handing SLU its first home loss of the season.
The Lions finished the game with a season-high 20 turnovers leading to 20 points for the Islanders. A&M-Corpus Christi also shot 83 percent from the free throw line on 25-for-30 while the Lions were 21-for-32 for 65 percent.
SLU (10-11, 2-2 Southland) was led by
Jalyn Hinton. The Boston native scored 24 points and snatched 13 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. Junior
Joe Kasperzyk, starting for
Keon Clergeot who was out sick, scored 17 points in 24 minutes before fouling out with over six minutes to go.
The Islanders (16-5, 3-1 Southland) had five players score in double figures led by Issac Mushila and Trevian Tennyson with 19 points each. Myles Smith added 14 points and three assists while De'Lazarus Keys and Terrion Murdix each scored 12. Keys also added 13 rebounds for a double-double.
The Lions opened the game in control as they had a 23-13 lead with 8:40 left in the first half, holding the Islanders to 5-for-21 shooting in the first 11:20 of the game. However, the Islanders rallied to cut the Lions' lead to 36-34 at halftime.
With SLU leading 48-47 at the 13:05 mark of the second half, A&M-Corpus Christi went on a 12-2 run making it 59-50 Islanders.
Southeastern kept battling as Hinton and Kasperzyk scored 10 straight points to keep the Lions within striking distance, 66-60. However, Kasperzyk was whistled for his fifth foul with 5:52 remaining. The Islanders immediately went on a 10-2 run, taking a 76-64 lead with 2:27 left putting the game out of reach.
A&M-Corpus Christi finished the game 27-for-64 (42 percent) from the field, but made six of eight three-pointers in the second half to pull away. The Lions shot 24-for-59 from the field for 40 percent, and just 2-for-20 from the three-point line.
The Lions will look to rebound Saturday when they host UIW (4-17, 0-4 Southland) at 4 p.m. at the University Center.
Fans can watch the live broadcast of Saturday's games on ESPN+. Links to live stats will also be available at the Southeastern men's basketball schedule page at LionSports.Net.
HARDWOOD CLUB/S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the basketball program are encouraged to join the Hardwood Club. Lion alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letterwinners. All membership fees and donations to Hardwood Club are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern basketball program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at
laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting
www.LionUp.com.
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Basketball, follow @LionUpMBB and @DavidKieferSLU on Twitter, like /SLUathletics on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.
TICKETS
For ticket information, please contact the Southeastern Athletics Ticket Office at (985) 549-5466 or visit
www.LionSports.net/tickets. Southeastern is implementing mobile ticketing as the primary source for securing tickets. All tickets will be available via e-mail in a PDF format for fans to download on their phone or print at home. Tickets can also be downloaded to Apple Wallet.
