After getting two wins at home last week, the UTPB men’s basketball team will remain at home to start Lone Star Conference play this week.
The Falcons will face Texas A&M International at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Falcon Dome. They’ll face Texas A&M-Kingsville Saturday at 3 p.m. also at Falcon Dome.
UTPB head coach Kyle Tolin says he and his players are excited about beginning the next stage of the season as they prepare for a challenging conference slate.
The Falcons sit at 4-2 overall.
“We’re excited,” Tolin said. “I’ve had a chance to speak with our guys individually today and talk about how brutal this league is. We’re excited about playing and excited to see how we match up. We really have to get better this week. That’s a big part of the deal.”
The Dustdevils enter at 5-1. Tolin knows how tough of a challenge Texas A&M International brings on the defensive side of the floor.
“They’re really good defensively,” Tolin said. “They’re as good of a defensive team as we’ll play each year. They’re super physical and aggressive. They score a lot in the transition. They score off turnovers so we need to do a good job of taking care of the ball.”
>> HOME COOKING: Last week’s games were UTPB’s first home contests of the season as UTPB posted a 93-86 overtime win over Ecclesia on Friday and an 82-68 victory over Jarvis Christian on Saturday.
The Falcons are eager to remain at home for this week’s slate of games and hoping for an intimidating atmosphere at Falcon Dome.
“We’re excited to get this place packed,” Tolin said. “I’ve been fortunate over the years because I’ve been a part of a few programs in the past like Oklahoma Baptist and we won 93 percent of our games when we were (at home) over a 14 year period when I was there. At Arkansas-Monticello, we really tried to build that home atmosphere and won almost 80 percent of our games over seven years at home. We’d like to do the same thing here. … This gym can get really loud. That’s the goal. Each year, I tell our guys, I don’t care if the Warriors are coming to town, we’re going to play like we expect to win at the dome. That needs to be the mentality. I’m excited for us to be at home.”
>> WHATEVER IT TAKES: While Friday’s win wasn’t as easy as UTPB was hoping, Tolin was still happy to get the victory in overtime against Ecclesia.
“Obviously, the goal is to win and we were able to do that,” Tolin said. “We didn’t play as well as we wanted to but I think there were some positive points. We’re getting close. It’s going to click at some point pretty quick. Friday night, we had some guys step up. We had a bunch of guys step up on Saturday as well. We’re getting close. We’re getting closer. We’ll have a chance to do well in conference.”
>> IN THE COLD: Texas A&M International had more snow to deal with than the Permian Basin did last week as the Dustdevils are coming off a two-day tournament at the Alaska Fairbanks Thanksgiving Tournament.
Texas A&M International began the weekend with a 65-56 victory over Alaska Fairbanks before losing its first game of the season Saturday against Alaska Anchorage 65-48.
>> WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: The UTPB women’s basketball team will also be starting conference play this week at home, facing Texas A&M International at 5:15 p.m. Thursday at Falcon Dome.
The Falcons will remain at home when they face Texas A&M-Kingsville at 1 p.m. Saturday.
UTPB is coming off consecutive losses last week in Colorado, losing to Metro State Denver 56-48 Friday in Denver, Colo. and 84-76 against Colorado Christian Saturday in Lakewood, Colo.
Texas A&M International enters conference play at 4-1.
>> WORTH MENTIONING: The Lone Star Conference remains alive in the NCAA Division II Football Playoffs as undefeated Angelo State defeated Bemidji State 33-7 Saturday at home.
The Rams will next face a familiar opponent with Colorado School of Mines in the quarterfinals Dec. 3 in San Angelo.
It’ll be the third meeting in two years for both schools as the Rams survived a 30-27 overtime win against the Orediggers earlier this year.
Last year, Colorado School of Mines knocked Angelo State out of the playoffs with a 34-26 win in the second round.
