Powell’s school-record 35 points help TAMUT beat Gold Rush

TEXARKANA, Texas — Kobe Powell scored a school-record 35 points Thursday, and Colby Rasberry made two 3-pointers in the final four minutes to help Texas A&M-Texarkana earn a 79-70 Red River Athletic Conference men’s basketball victory against Xavier University of Louisiana.

The Eagles (14-3 overall, 7-2 RRAC) won their fourth straight and stopped the three-game win streak of the Gold Rush (9-5, 5-3).

XULA will stay on the road and play Paul Quinn at 4 p.m. Saturday in Dallas.

Powell, a 5-foot-9 senior guard, scored 20 first-half points without missing a shot to help the Eagles grab a 37-31 lead at the break. TAMUT’s largest lead was 59-41 with 12:55 remaining, then a 23-6 XULA run over the next nine minutes — including 3-pointers by Brian White, TJ Jones and Tracy Steele — cut the Eagles’ lead to 65-64.

But XULA did not take the lead thereafter, and Rasberry, a freshman guard, made 3s at 3:54 and 1:07 to help the Eagles pull away again.

Xavier Reaves scored 15 points, Cory Wells 14, White 11 and Steele 10 for XULA. Reaves was 7-of-9 from the floor and grabbed 12 rebounds for his fourth double-double this season and second in the last three games.

Powell, who did not start, finished 9-of-13 from the floor, 3-of-4 on 3-pointers and 14-of-16 from the line. He also grabbed 13 rebounds and had two assists and two steals. Powell broke the previous TAMUT game mark of 33 points, accomplished twice by Desmond Kennedy in 2019-20, the Eagles’ debut season.

Powell is the first opponent to reach 35 points against the Gold Rush since Philander Smith’s Ken Brown had 45 in an 87-80 XULA victory at The Barn on Jan. 16, 2012.

TAMUT outshot XULA 48.9 to 40.5 percent from the floor and outrebounded the Gold Rush 39-30. The Eagles made 28-of-41 free throws to XULA’s 12-of-17.