Feb. 15, 2007
Box Score
On military night at the UTPA Fieldhouse, the University of Texas-Pan American men's basketball team never trailed in the game, answering the call to duty as they defeated South Dakota State University by a score of 63-50 on Thursday (Feb. 15) in front of 1,912 fans.
Four Broncs scored double-digits in the victory, improving the Broncs to 13-11 on the season and 11-1 at the Fieldhouse.
UTPA came out picking its shots carefully while playing stout defense to take a 11-1 lead at the 15:16 mark in the first half when Zach Trader (La Porte, TX/La Porte H.S.) connected on a jumper and Jonathan Chatman (Chicago, IL/Sheridan College) dishing the helper.
SDSU's Mackenzie Casey connected on three-straight jumpers on a 13-6 run to will his team back to within three points of the Broncs, making it a 17-14 game with 5:39 remaining in the opening stanza, but the UTPA capitalized on four Jackrabbit fouls by turning them into eight UTPA points in the final five minutes of the half to make it a 29-19 ballgame going into the intermission.
The Broncs ended the first half shooting 36.4 percent on 8-of-22 from the field compared to the Jackrabbit's 36.4 percent on 8-of-22 shooting. The point discrepancy came from the charity stripe as UTPA out-scored SDSU by a 10-3 margin while failing to connect on a single three-point shot in the opening 20 minutes of play.
Led by Garrett Callahan, the Jackrabbits once again whittled away at the double-digit Bronc lead to just four points with 12:36 left in regulation. Callahan accounted for nine SDSU points in the 17-11 run that made the score 40-36.
With the ball in the hands of newcomer Paul Stoll (Lansing, MI/Lansing C.C.) the only thing the Jackrabbits could do was watch as Stoll recorded 10 of his 14 points in the final eight minutes of the contest, using his handles to keep the ball out of the hands of the opponents.
Stoll finished the game with 14 points on 3-of-6 shooting from behind the arc while also going 5-of-6 from the foul line in 31 minutes of action.
Dexter Shankle (Katy, TX/James E. Taylor H.S.) picked up 14 points in the victory on 2-of-4 from the field while picking up eight points from the charity stripe in 29 minutes of play.
The Jackrabbits were led by Jose Frias who tallied 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting, while adding a team-high six rebounds on the evening.
UTPA finished the game shooting 36.6 percent on 15-of-41 shooting compared to SDSU with 40.4 percent on 19-of-47. The Broncs out-rebounded the Jackrabbits by a 33-30 margin while also winning the turnover battle 14-12. From the free throw line UTPA shot 83.9 percent which accounted for 26 points while SDSU shot 50.0 percent for 11 points.
The Broncs return to action on Saturday (Feb. 17) when they face North Dakota State University at the UTPA Fieldhouse in Edinburg, TX, with tip-time set for 2:00 p.m.
UTPA Sports Information
