The men’s basketball team was able to get revenge against St. Thomas, Texas, 91-74 on Saturday at Abe Lemons Arena.
St. Thomas had beat the Stars 84-65 in Houston on Nov. 15.
Senior Gary Inglett led the charge for the Stars with 23 points and added seven rebounds. The Stars improved to 5-3 while St. Thomas fell to 5-6.
Senior Tharone Chilton produced 19 points and six rebounds, while senior Ivan Jelencic scored 13 points and seven rebounds.
Senior R.J. McGhee was one rebound shy of a double-double, contributing 12 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
The Stars took a 42-28 advantage into the locker room while holding St. Thomas to 35.7 percent (10-for-28) shooting from the floor. The Stars scored on 50.0 percent (15-for-30) of their shots in the first half.
“I think we got a chance to knock some rust off today,” Coach Dionne Phelps said. “I was impressed with our level of wanting to compete, I thought that was good.”
The Stars opened the second half with an 8-0 run to extend the lead to 18. Sophomore Dorion Gigger connected on a tip-in to give the Stars its biggest lead of 22 with 9:12 left in the game.
St. Thomas went on an 11-3 run to put the game within 14 at the 5:41 mark, the closest the game would get.
“One of the big things is, Jonathan Reed had a really good practice the other day and challenged our first-teamers to step up and play with energy,” Phelps said.” I think that became contagious. Gary showed up with a lot of energy and played hard early. That really helped us.”
The Stars dominated the glass with a 47-26 rebound advantage.
“We were on the glass, rebounding like we were supposed to,” Phelps said. “I’m pretty proud of the way our guys came out.”
The Stars pick up conference play at 8 p.m. Thursday at USAO in USAO Fieldhouse.
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