SAN ANGELO, Texas – The Arkansas Tech men's basketball team erased a nine-point halftime deficit and built a lead of that same margin just over halfway through the second half. A barrage of made three-pointers by Texas A&M-Kingsville after Tech built that lead, however, turned the tide and helped lift Kingsville to a 72-67 victory over Tech on Friday evening at the Stephens Arena in San Angelo, Texas.
Prior to the up and down swings of the second half, Kingsville had grabbed control of the game early and led for the entirety of the first half. The largest lead the Javelinas (4-1) would have in the first half was 13 points, 36-23, with 2:32 left to play. Over the remainder of the half, the Wonder Boys (2-2) began to chip away at that lead and closed on a modest 4-0 run to bring the Kingsville lead to single digits.
In the first half, Kingsville shot over 45% overall (16-of-35), but were just 27% good from three-point range (4-of-15) and missed both free throw attempts. On the other end of the court, the Wonder Boys' overall field goal percentage was lower, but Tech still shot over 41% (10-of-24) and made 2-of-5 (40%) from three-point range. The Wonder Boys also knocked down 5-of-6 from the charity stripe.
In the second half, the Wonder Boys started off hot, making six of their first seven shots through the first four minutes or so of action. That, combined with Kingsville's cold start to the second half in which they missed each of their first six shots during the same period of time, allowed the Wonder Boy to capture their first lead of the game.
After grabbing that initial lead on a hoop-and-harm dunk and free throw by
Niko Gosnell, the Wonder Boys for the next eight minutes of action or so. At one point, the Wonder Boys had swelled their lead out to an apex of nine points with 11:40 left as
Czar Perry went coast-to-coast on a steal and dunk that capped a 7-0 scoring burst.
That flurry and highlight sequence by Perry promoted Kingsville to call a timeout. Out of that timeout, the Javelinas suddenly found their mark from three-point range and made three-straight three-pointers over the next two minutes of game time to knot the game at 50-all.
Over the next three minutes or so of action, the lead would change hands four times. The final of those came at the 6:10 mark and gave the Javelinas a one-point lead following another made three-pointer, their sixth since Tech's nine-point lead.
With just under three and a half minutes to play,
Tony Hall buried a three-pointer to tie the score at 61-all. The Wonder Boys would knot the score twice more over the next two minutes but were unable to push ahead.
Following the final of those two tie score by the Wonder Boys, the Javelinas knocked down their seventh trifecta of the second half and were a perfect 4-of-4 from the charity stripe down the stretch the keep the Wonder Boys at bay.
Overall, the Wonder Boys would nearly shoot 50% overall from the floor thanks to 16-of-29 (55.2%) shooting in the second half. They were also 5-of-10 from three-point range and made 10-of-14 free throws. On the other end of the court, the Javelinas shot 41% overall (26-of-63), but 7-of-12 success from three-point range and 9-of-12 makes from the free throw line in the second half, helped Kingsville secure the victory.
Individually, the Wonder Boys had two players score in double figures.
Czar Perry led the way with 21 points on 9-of-17 shooting.
Taelon Peter was just off that mark with a season-high 19 points. The Russellville native was perfect from everywhere on the floor going 6-of-6 overall, 2-of-2 from three-point range and 5-of-5 from the charity stripe.
The Wonder Boys will now have a quick turnaround and will be back in action on Saturday evening as they will take on Angelo State to close out the 2021 Ed Messbarger Classic, hosted by Angelo State. Tip-off for the game between the Wonder Boys and No. 18-ranked Rams is scheduled for 7 p.m.
