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For Immediate Release: December 13, 2001 EDINBURG,
TX–University of Texas-Pan American Head Coach Bob Hoffman likened
Thursday night’s men’s basketball game against Lamar to a chess
match.
If that’s the case, the Broncs’
defense down the stretch spelled checkmate. UTPA outscored the Cardinals, 16-8
during the final eight minutes and five seconds and held on for a 69-58
victory before a season-high crowd of 3625 at the UTPA Fieldhouse. The
Broncs extended a 31-23 halftime lead to 12 points, 47-35, before LU
came back. Damany Hendrix, Ron Austin and Tyler Hackstadt hit
consecutive three-pointers to cut a nine-point UTPA advantage to a
single point.
The Broncs called time out, and
tightened their defense. A layup by junior Terrell Hill (Carnegie,
OK/Carnegie HS/Seward CC) that increased UTPA’s lead to three points
was the only scoring for the next two and a half minutes. Then senior
guard Mire Chatman (Garland, TX/South Garland HS/Southwestern Christian
JC), who had been held in check, broke loose. Chatman connected on a
pair of free throws, and added a driving layup
to push UTPA’s lead to four, 57-53, with 4:01 remaining. Senior
forward Marcus Quinn (Midwest City, OK/Choctaw HS/Eastern Oklahoma
State) made a layup, then Chatman hit a free throw to push the lead to
62-58. After a layup by junior forward Andrius Sakalys (Vilnius,
Lithuania/M. Dauksos HS/eastern Oklahoma State), Chatman connected on a
layup, a free throw and a jump shot to account for the final five points
of the game. UTPA grabbed an early 31-16 lead,
and led by eight points at halftime despite the fact that Lamar scored
the final eight points of the first half. Quinn had 15 points in the
first half, and junior forward Jon Nubine (Oklahoma City, OK/Putnam City
North HS/Carl Albert JC) had 10. “In the three years I’ve been
here, this was probably the best win we’ve had when we didn’t play
as well as we were capable of playing,” said Hoffman. “Lamar is a
very good team and they're well-coached, and both
teams were trying to push the ball, but I think we both got tired. Our
guys had a lot on their minds, getting ready for finals, but we worked
our tails off and were fortunate to win.” The Broncs were able to turn it on
at the right time. “It was kind of like a chess match, then they hit
three threes in a row and got it down to one,” said Hoffman. “We
stepped it up defensively, and got some easy baskets in the last two
minutes.” Quinn of the Broncs led all scorers
with 17 points, and also grabbed 11 rebounds. Nubine added 15, Chatman
had 14 (all in the second half), and Hill chipped in with 10. Hendrix and Lewis Arline led LU with
13 points apiece. Tyler Hackstadt added 12, and Ron Austin had 10. The Broncs improved to 6-3 with the victory, while Lamar fell to 2-4 with the defeat. UTPA will host Middle Tennessee State Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. “That should be a great game, it would be great to have a full house,” said Hoffman. MBBLAMAR121301 |