First-year head coach Andy Newman and the 2013-14 University of Texas of the Permian Basin men's basketball team hit the hardwood for the first time this season Wednesday night in an 80-70 exhibition loss to Texas A&M at Reed Arena in College Station, Texas.

The pre-season contest gave a chance for UTPB's five returners and nine newcomers a chance to play against someone other than themselves before next weekend's season opener.

"We played hard, and I was happy with our effort and how we competed," said Newman. "Tonight was really good to play against a team that's well-coached. When you make mistakes, they exploit them and make you pay, and it's a good learning experience to see what our team needs to do to get better. I was definitely happy overall. We had some individual performances that were great. Keith Martin with a double-double against an SEC team. Dwayne Soders played well and Anthony Dees shot the ball terrific. Thomas Feeney had five assists in the first half and ran the game well for us.
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The Falcons had the games top three scorers, led by Dees' game-high 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including hitting 3-of-5 shots from three-point range. Keith Martin led all players with 11 rebounds and added 13 points to go with four blocks, and Soders added 15 points.

UTPB led by two early on and kept the game within reach in the first half, closing to within seven at 36-29 on a Dees 3-pointer with 3:13 remaining before going into the half down 11.

The Falcons kept the score close in the opening minutes after halftime, scoring five in a row on another Dees triple and a basket by Soders.

They closed the game strong, scoring the final six points on shots by Dees, Jonathan Uribe and Stepan Hester.

The Falcons have nine days before their first regular season game of the year against Texas A&M - Commerse on Nov. 8, and Newman understands that there is plenty to be done in practice before the game's start to count.

"We have to work on our transition game on both ends," noted Newman. "We need to get back on defense and stop giving up easy baskets, and push the ball to create more possessions on offense. We have to work on those two things and get really good at them so we're ready to play the brand of basketball that we want to put out there."