Nov. 20, 2005
Box Score
The University of Texas-Pan American men's basketball team was handed a 71-59 setback to the 17th-ranked University of Illinois on Sunday (Nov. 20) at Assembly Hall in Champaign, IL, in the first game of the South Padre Island Invitational.
"I was very happy with our effort," said head coach Robert Davenport. "Our guys played their tails off and stuck to the game plan. Everybody helped out, but when you play a team that is a little more talented than you, you can't make mistakes and we made a few too many."
The Fighting Illini, who entered the contest as the reigning national runner-ups, had their hands full with the Broncs early in the game as UTPA was able to build a 10-point first half lead when freshman David Burrell (Houston, TX/Phyllis Wheatley H.S.) forced Jamar Smith to turnover the ball then raced down the court for an easy lay-in to make the score 23-13 with 8:19 remaining before intermission.
Illinois battled back over the course of the next seven minutes and were able to grab a one-point lead at the 1:53 mark on a jumper in the paint from senior James Augustine, who finished the game with 14 points on 6-8 shooting to go along with seven rebounds. The Fighting Illini upped their lead to six points following one of five three-pointers by preseason All-American Dee Brown to give Illinois a 36-30 lead with 1:00 left before halftime.
Sophomore Dexter Shankle (Katy, TX/James E. Taylor H.S.) was able to convert on a jumper from just inside the three-point line to cut the lead to four points at 36-32 heading into intermission. In the first half, the Broncs held Illinois to 40.0 percent (14-35) shooting compared to converting on 53.8 percent (14-26) of their own shots.
In the second half, the Fighting Illini were able to build their lead to seven points following another Brown trey at the 17:48 mark to make the score 43-36. The Broncs were relentless on both sides of the floor, and were able to cut the lead to five points at 56-51 with 8:17 remaining in the game when junior Johnathan Chatman (Chicago, IL/Sheridan College) followed up a missed shot by Kano Edwards (Bridgeport, CT/Western Nebraska C.C.).
At the 5:54 mark, the Fighting Illini were able to build a double-digit lead on the Broncs for the first time in the game when Brian Randle followed up his own missed shot and scored in the paint. The Broncs cut the lead back to nine points following a Derrick East (Binger, OK/Lookeba-Sickles H.S.) lay-in off a missed shot by Larry Sheppard (Baton Rouge, LA/Iowa Western C.C.), which made the score 62-53 with 5:42 remaining in the game.
With just under five minutes remaining in the game, Augustine was able to score down low and gave Illinois a 64-53 advantage. Following those points, the Broncs were never able to cut down the double-digit lead as they fell on the road.
The Broncs held the 16th-ranked team in the country to 41.2 percent (28-68) shooting from the floor while they shot 48.9 percent (23-47). The Fighting Illini was able to hold a big advantage in the three-point shooting area where they converted on 11 treys compared to only two for the Broncs.
"Our guys played really well in the zone defense and forced them to miss a lot of shots. We wanted to force them to beat us with threes, and we were banking on them missing them. They were able to make 11 in the game, but they attempted 34 so it helped us to stay the game."
Brown finished with a game-high 20 points on 7-17 shooting, including 5-13 from behind the three-point arc. Rich McBride contributed with 11 points and eight assists in 33 minutes of action while Smith added 10 points and four rebounds.
East finished with 12 points on 6-6 shooting and grabbed six rebounds in 30 minutes of action while Shankle also added 12 points and five rebounds for the Broncs. Chatman finished with 10 points on 4-7 shooting and drained UTPA's two three-pointers in the game.
"Everybody contributed tonight, and we didn't get the production from our post players like we had in the past, but we were playing a lot bigger team tonight. I'm proud of the guys, but as I told them after the game, that we don't count moral victories. We need to continue to build on this game, learn from it and improve against Wichita State," Davenport stated.
With the victory, Illinois improved its record to 2-0 while the Broncs evened their record at 1-1.
UTPA will be back in action on Tuesday (Nov. 22) for its second game of the South Padre Island Invitational against Wichita State University in Wichita, KS with tip-off set for 7:00 p.m.
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