The men’s basketball team played at home Wednesday against Texas A&M Corpus Christi and lost in a low scoring game 56-44.
The Wildcats struggled shooting the ball as they made only 17 shots out of 51 attempts and finished just 26 percent from three point range.
The Islanders shot 38 percent from the field making 18 of their 48 shots and made four three pointers out of 14 attempts.
The Islanders started out on top with an 8-2 score through the first five minutes of the first half.
At the 14:23 mark, sophomore point guard Jaylen Franklin got a steal and sophomore guard Jaren Lewis made a jumper shortly after.
After the two points from Lewis, the men put together an 11-0 run that lasted until the 8:10 mark putting them in the lead with a 13-8 score.
The Wildcats could only put up 10 points for the next eight minutes however, and the Islanders were able to go on a 24-10 run to take a 32-23 run going into halftime.
The men came out strong in the second half as they went on a 12-4 run to come within one point of the Islanders.
After this run, however, the men went cold and were not able to take the lead.
The Wildcats only put up nine more points for the rest of the half while Corpus Christi scored 20 to make the final score 56-44.
Head coach Joe Golding talked about the struggles of the game.
“I don’t think we were aggressive, we weren’t attacking enough and getting to the foul line,” Golding said. “We have to do a better job coaching and giving our team an opportunity to score baskets.”
Lewis stood out for the men scoring 11 points and grabbing seven rebounds as well as junior guard Isaiah Tripp who scored eight points along with four assists and four rebounds.
Senior forward Rashawn Thomas continued his impressive season putting up 18 points, 11 rebounds, and four steals.
With this loss the men fell to 6-9 in Southland play and 12-14 overall, however, they remained ninth in the conference.
“We have to continue to get better,” Golding said. “We have a week and a half here together, every season is different, every journey is different, right now we just have to finish this thing out right.”
The men will next play on the road this Saturday against Sam Houston and will try to keep their chance at a .500 season alive.
