CORPUS CHRISTI – A late 18-0 run by the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders separated the Islanders to an 86-63 win over the Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team on Saturday afternoon at the American Bank Center.
 
The Lions fall to 9-17 overall and 3-10 in Southland play, while the Islanders take the season series over A&M-Commerce and are 15-10 overall this season and 8-4 in conference play.
 
A&M-Commerce is tied with New Orleans for ninth in the conference standings, both teams are 0.5 games back of UIW for the final spot into the conference tournament.
 
The two teams exchanged the first eight points of the game, but the game was not tied again, nor was there a lead change. The Islanders scored six of the next seven when the game was tied at four to lead 10-5 at the 16:15 mark.
 
The Lions got the deficit down to two at the 14:08 mark on a three-pointer by VJ Reeves Jr. (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) to make it 12-10, but A&M-Commerce scored the next 10 to lead by 12. A&M-Commerce was not able to get the Islander lead below six the rest of the half and trailed 44-32 at halftime.
 
A pair of free throws from Kwo Agwa (Calgary, Canada) and a three from Alonzo Dodd (St. Paul, Minn.) brought the Lions back within 10 at the 16:41 mark. A&M-Commerce used a 4-0 scoring run from Kalen Williams (Augusta, Ga.) to trail 55-48 at the 14:33 mark, which was the smallest for A&M-Corpus Christi in the second half up to that point.
 
At the 10:02 mark, Khaliq Abdul-Mateen (Cy-Lakes) got the Lions to within six on a jumper, but a 7-0 run by the Islanders followed. From the 6:20 mark of the second till the 1:01 mark, the Islanders scored 18 in a row to lead by 25, the biggest lead of the game.
 
Williams scored team-best 15 along with four assists, and two rebounds. Tommie Lewis (Vero Beach, Fla.) and Agwa scored 10 points, two rebounds, and a steal each. Both Jerome Brewer Jr. (Camden, N.J.) and Dodd scored nine.
 
A&M-Commerce had just 18 rebounds in the game and shot 40 percent from the field, but did go 14 for 15 at the line. The Islanders had 39 rebounds and shot 59 percent in the game.
 
Garry Clark scored 24 for the Islanders, while Dayne Prim added 18 off the bench and totaled team-best 10 rebounds as well.

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The Lions close out the weekend on Monday at UIW. Tip-off in San Antonio is set for 6:30 p.m.