Although the UTPB men’s basketball team emerged with a 76-68 victory against St. Mary’s Saturday at the Falcon Dome, head coach Kyle Tolin came away with plenty of things to fix.
The Falcons looked strong defensively in the first half, but allowed 51 points in the second period that made the game a lot closer.
“We’ve watched them obviously on film and they’ve been down and fought back,” Tolin said. “To their credit, they did a good job and they’ve got a good team and kept battling.”
Tolin added that he felt his team held on to earn its second straight win in the past three days.
In the first half, UTPB held St. Mary’s to 17 points scored on 27.6% shooting.
Only eight of the Rattlers’ 29 attempts from the field connected, with one of those being a 3-pointer.
UTPB started the game with a quick 9-0 scoring run, highlighted by 3-poiners from DaJuan Jones and Jordan Horn.
The hot streak continued for the Falcons in the first half, as they led by as many as 17 points with three minutes left until the break.
“I thought we played as well as we have all year long in the first half,” Tolin said. “We’ve got to be able to not have empty possessions and we had too many in the second half.”
The game changed when St. Mary’s went on an 18-0 scoring run after the Falcons took a 43-19 lead after halftime.
St. Mary’s even made it a one-point game after C.J. Washington converted a layup, but the Falcons had a quick response with a dunk from Lemmie Howard and another 3-pointer from Horn.
Jones would score UTPB’s final points of the contest from the charity stripe, helping the team find just enough momentum to close out the game.
Horn led UTPB with 18 points scored on 6-of-15 shooting, while Kendal Frey had 15.
The Rattlers were able to outrebound the Falcons 35-31 and Tolin believes that made a difference late in the contest.
Fifty of the 68 points St, Mary’s scored came in the paint.
“Part of that was off our turnovers, part of that was driving by, part of that was we were tired and didn’t guard well,” Tolin said. “We’re going to have to take the film and look at it.
“We’ve got to do a better job of keeping them out of the lane and finishing possessions.”
The Falcons (6-3 overall) will have a few more days to recover and prepare before closing out nonconference play against Randall Friday and Saturday at the Falcon Dome.
The first game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday.
“It’s nice, we’ve been on the road a couple weeks before so it was nice to be at home,” Tolin said. “Now class is done so we’re not having to worry about finals and things like that like we had to this week.
“We can come in here and really try to get better this next week if we’ll let ourselves.”
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UTPB 76, St. Mary’s 68
ST. MARY’S (2-3)
Ryan Leonard 9-12 0-0 21, Caleb Jordan 6-10 0-0 12, C.J. Washington 4-8 0-0 9, Tyler Caron 3-10 2-2 8, Mamady Djikine 1-5 0-0 2, Emmanuel Ewuzie 4-5 0-0 8, Josh Brewer 3-10 0-0 6, Jaron Presley 1-2 0-0 2, Timmy Benavides 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-62 2-2 68.
UTPB (6-3)
Jordan Horn 6-15 2-2 18, Kendal Frey 6-9 0-0 15, Miles Daniels 5-11 0-2 14, DaJuan Jones 4-9 3-4 12, Lemmie Howard 3-5 2-2 8, Keyon Craddock 1-4 0-0 3, Max Warren 1-3 0-0 2, Quinntez Grimes 1-2 0-0 2, Zavon Godwin 1-3 0-0 2, Alvarez Powell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-61 7-10 76.
Halftime — UTPB 38, St. Mary’s 17. 3-Point goals — St. Mary’s 4-17 (Leonard 3-5, Jordan 0-2, Washington 1-4, Caron 0-3, Brewer 0-2, Presley 0-1). Total fouls —St. Mary’s 14, UTPB 13-30 (Horn 4-9, Frey 3-6, Daniels 4-9, Jones 1-2, Craddock 1-3, Godwin 0-1). Fouled out — St. Mary’s (Leonard). Technical fouls — None. Rebounds — St. Mary’s 35 (Djikine 8), UTPB 31 (Howard 7). Assists — St. Mary’s 10 (Jordan 4), UTPB 18 (Jones 9)..
