LSC Men's Basketball Championship Central

In their first season in the Lone Star Conference, St. Edward’s will be playing for a championship after the Hilltoppers advanced to the LSC Championship finals with a hard-fought win over Texas A&M-Kingsville Saturday night.

            SEU had to stave off one last 3-point attempt by the Javelinas but held on for a 71-68 win at Comerica Center. The HIlltoppers will face No. 1 seed West Texas A&M on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. SEU is the only team to beat the 31-1 Buffaloes this season.

            All-LSC first-team pick Ashton Spears scored 29 points, including two clutch free throws in the final 15 seconds to put the Hilltoppers up by three. After a timeout, Kingsville ran an offensive set and got the ball to John Mouton, who fired up a 3-pointer from the right wing, but the ball clanged off the rim and eventually into the hands of Spears, who dribbled out the final seconds for the victory.

            SEU led by as much as 16 points in the second half but the Javelinas, the tournament’s No. 3 seed, wouldn’t go away. Trailing 66-59, Kingsville scored four straight points to cut the lead to 3 with 2:00 to play. But once again, Spears was there to drill a 3-pointer at the top of the key.

            Kingsville battled it back down as Tre Flowers hit a layup and drew the foul with 19 seconds to play. But Flowers’ free throw to tie the game was no good, giving Spears the chance to go back to the line.

            “Everybody knows they’re going to fight until the end. It’s hard to put them away,” SEU head coach Andre Cook said. “We kept fighting and they made a run. But to our guys’ credit, I’m really proud of their grit and determination to come up with this win.”   

            Flowers paced Kingsville with 19 points, while Rashon Thomas came off the bench to score 11.

            The Javelinas drop to 21-9 and will now hope for a spot in next week’s regional tournament. Kingsville is currently ranked seventh, but did beat No. 6 DBU on Friday in Frisco.          
  
SEU Notes:

• SEU’s Jake Krafka battled under the basket all night, posting eight points, five rebounds and three blocks.
• Dorian Lopez, a second-team All-LSC pick, did most of his work on the boards with 21 rebounds but he made a clutch 3-pointer to push the lead up to eight in the final four minutes.
• The Hilltoppers entered the weekend ranked No. 2 both in the LSC Championship and the South Central Region.
• August Haas, the school’s all-time leader in assists, upped his total to 459 with nine assists on Saturday. Haas had nine assists on Friday as well.
• St. Edward’s ranks fifth in the NCAA Division II in turnovers forced but forced only six by Kingsville on Saturday.

 
TAMUK Notes:  

• The Javelinas scored the first basket of the game to take a 2-0 lead, but never led again.  
• TAMUK is second in the LSC in rebounding margin at +3.97, but were outrebounded by SEU 39-36.
• Kingsville lost its first game this year when totaling more than 10 assists. With 12 assists on Saturday, the Javelinas are now 16-1.
• Rashon Thomas hit three more 3-pointers on Saturday. He’s currently seventh on Kingsville’s all-time list of 3-pointers made with 66.