Men’s Basketball — Victory slips through Northwestern State’s hands in loss at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Northwestern State erased a 16-point deficit and took its first lead with less than 10 minutes remaining, but the victory slipped through the Demons’ hands Thursday in the final minutes of a 67-62 loss at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Neither team popped the nets much in the second half, but the Islanders (5-9, 1-2 Southland Conference) made crucial buckets in the waning minutes for their first league win.

With under a minute left and a four-deficit, NSU (4-8, 1-2 SLC) tipped a pass on a press that landed in Jashawn Talton-Thomas’ hands for an elbow jumper before Peyton Smith made a left-handed scoop shot at the shot clock buzzer to help protect the Islanders’ edge.

“On those two plays, we nearly had the ball, but (AMCC) had the resolve to make those kind of plays, and the ball bounced their way a lot tonight,” said NSU coach Mike McConathy. “Maybe their backs were against the wall being 0-2 in the conference, but we have to have that same resolve.

“It was great to fight back like we did and get back in the game, and now we’ve got to put our boots on, get to work, and continue to get better.”

NSU’s Nikos Chougkaz and Jovan Zelenbaba made back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Demons a 47-44 edge, finally erasing the Islanders’ large lead.

Chougkaz recorded his first career double-double with 12 points and a career-high 16 rebounds, which helped NSU to a 41-35 rebounding edge against a physical, rebounded-oriented Islanders’ squad.

But the Demons’ offense bogged down for large stretches of the second half, including four points in a seven-minute span after taking the lead.

That’s all the Islanders needed as Jordan Hairston made a pair of 3-pointers and leading scorer Jashawn Talton-Thomas nailed a 3-pointer to highlight a 15-4 run for a 59-51 edge.

Talton-Thomas scored 17 of his 22 points in the first half, and Hairston contributed 10 of his 12 points in the second half.

Talton-Thomas loomed large in an early 16-3 run that helped the Islanders build a 21-8 advantage that ballooned to 33-17 late in the first half.

But the Demons found their groove, responding with an 18-3 spurt that sliced TAMU-CC’s lead to 36-35.

Four different NSU players scored during the run led by five points each from Chougkaz, Chudier Bile, Brian White and Trenton Massner.

Bile had 12 points and seven rebounds while Massner added a career-high 10 points and five rebounds.

“When we came back, the ball moved well and pushed the tempo,” McConathy said against an Islanders team that preferred a deliberate pace. “But there were too many times where the ball stuck and we didn’t value possession enough (18 turnovers).

“We had too much dribbling, and we had just eight assists on the night. When we got the lead, we took too many bad shots and didn’t take care of the ball.”

Despite losing the turnover battle 18-11, NSU was outscored just 14-12 in points off turnovers.

The Demons also created transition opportunities off nine blocks, including three by Jamaure Gregg.

But NSU shot just 37 percent for the game and 29 percent in the second half.

The Islanders also shot 37 percent but made 9-of-22 from deep.

TAMU-CC won its seventh straight game in the series, although Thursday was the fifth time in seven meetings that the Demons traveled to the Islanders’ American Bank Center.

NSU returns home to host Houston Baptist on Sunday at 4 p.m. as the second part of a doubleheader with the women’s basketball team, who will also be facing HBU.