Trailing by four at halftime, the UTPB men's basketball team out-scored Texas A&M-Kingsville 45-31 in the second half to pick up a 69-59 win in the team's home opener Satudray afternoon.

The lead changed hands four times and the game was tied seven times in the first 20 minutes, with neither team leading by more than six points at any one moment. Keith Martin put UTPB ahead by four with a dunk at 6:19 and by hitting a free throw a possession later to give the Falcons a 20-16 advantage, and tipped in a missed layup following a pair of free throws by the Javelinas to keep the lead out at four.

TAMUK scored 10 straight in the final three and a half minutes, erasing the Falcon lead to claim a six point lead of its own before Martin hit a basket with 30 seconds remaining to cut the gap to four points at halftime at 28-24.

The offense started to click in the second for UTPB, as the Falcons hit 56 percent of their field goal attempts to just 31 percent in the first half. 

Eight straight on a layup by Madison Turner and back-to-back threes from Thomas Feeney and Andre Rieder brought the Falcons from trailing by eight to the eighth tie of the night at 36-36 with 15:05 left to play.

Feeney hit a jumper three minutes later to put UTPB back on top 39-38, and another shot from downtown by Reider gave the Falcons a 42-38 advantage.

Martin and Feeney connected on an alley-oop, and Martin hit a free throw after being fouled on the basket to stretch the lead out to six. 

A stretch where the Falcons sunk five straight field goals helped increase the lead out to 10 points with 4:03 left in the game, and they responded when the Javelinas cut the lead down to five by hitting four straight free throws to wrap up the 10 point victory.

Feeney led the Falcons with 18 points on the night, hitting 6-of-10 from the field with a pair of threes while tying his season-high of seven assists. Martin hit on 6-of-7 shot attempts in scoring 16 points while tying his season-high of 14 rebounds, and Phadarius Taylor added 13 points off the bench on 5-of-8 shooting. 

Rashad Basey scored 19 to lead all Javelinas and Ta'Quan McDew added 13 points. Jordan Jahn led all players with 16 rebounds.

UTPB held Texas A&M-Kingsville to just 35 percent shooting on the night, limiting the Javelinas to 2-18 from behind the 3-point line (11 percent). The win was the second in two games against TAMKU, with the Falcons having earned a 106-89 win in the prior meeting between the teams eight days ago in Kingsville, Texas.

The Falcons return to the court in eight days, traveling to Corpus Christi for an exhibition game at Texas A&M-CC. Gametime Sunday, Dec. 8 is set for 3 p.m.