AUSTIN, Texas – St. Edward's University Men's Basketball turned in its best performance of the year, so far, on Tuesday with a 90-73 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville. The victory moves the Hilltoppers to 7-1 while the Javelinas fall to 5-2.
FRANKIE MGBOLU paced the team in scoring with 19 points while going 7-for-7 from the free-throw line. However,
TREY LINDSEY quietly turned in the performance of the night. The redshirt senior dished out a career-high six assists to lead both teams, and tied the game-high in rebounds with seven. He also added five points with one steal.
RAMIR BURTON,
JOHN GRAMLICH, and
QUINTON LILLEY all scored in double-digits as well with Gramlich going 3-for-6 from behind the arc. As a team, St. Edward's shot over 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from three-point range.
"I didn't think the game was over at halftime, but I will say, they were terrific. I told them that in the locker room," said head coach Andre Cook. "The way our guys played is the team I've been waiting to see. They were fantastic and they're smart kids. We need to play like that. If we continue to be cerebral, protect the ball, and, make it our tempo, we can be a hard team to beat. That's for sure."
St. Edward's came out of the gate firing on all cylinders with a three-point bucket from Lilley to open the scoring. The Hilltoppers followed up with seven more unanswered points to take a 9-0 lead, less than three minutes into the game.
The Javelinas cut the deficit to six, but their run would be short-lived. A steal, followed by a fastbreak layup from Mgbolu pushed the Topper lead to 11, and an Aubrey King three pointer pushed the advantage to 14 with 12:49 left in the half.
Coach Cook's team kept their foot on the gas as
JAMES TAYLOR came off the bench and drained a three pointer, with a hand in his face, to make it 41-18. Mgbolu, Gramlich, and Lilley all scored double digits in the opening period, and Lindsey pulled down six of his seven rebounds as well. The Hilltoppers closed the half leading 53-28.
"We've been working on putting together a whole 20 minutes this entire season. So far we haven't been doing a great job," said Lindsey. "Coach Cook had a great game plan. We came in really wanting to switch screens and make them shoot tough shots, and this first half was the best we have played all season."
In the second half, foul trouble for the Hilltoppers allowed TAMU-Kingsville to pull within 11, but the home-team bench stepped up again as
ETHAN GILBERT scored four-straight points to cap a 10-0 run for the Toppers. The Javelinas closed the game with a run of their own, but it would not be enough.
Coach Cook and his team continue play on Saturday with an exhibition against NCAA Division I-Rice University in Houston, Texas at Tudor Fieldhouse. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. with live stats and video available at GoHilltoppers.com.
