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**For Immediate Release** Cardinals Top the Aggies in San Antonio By Scott Puryear of OPSU Sports on 02/05/2010 San Antonio, Texas — The Oklahoma Panhandle State Aggie men’s basketball team was here Thursday night for a Heartland Conference battle with the Cardinals of the University of the Incarnate Word. The Cardinals started to heat it up late in the first half and continued to shoot well in the second half for their 88-55 win.

The two teams met in the OPSU gym on December 19th and the Cardinals earned a 79-69 victory.

Thursday’s game was close for the first several minutes. With 12:36 left before the halftime break, it was tied 15-15, but by the 7:30 mark, the Cardinals were up 27-21. The teams left the floor at halftime with the Cardinals ahead 38-29.

After the break with 16:13 to play in the game, the home team had increased their advantage to 46-33, and by the 13:22 mark the hot shooting Cardinals were up 59-39. The Cardinals continued to shoot well for the rest of the game and earned victory by the score of 88-55.

The major difference in the game came in shooting from the field, where the Cardinals hit on 34 of their 69 attempts (49.3%) while the Aggies connected on 16 of 63 (25.4%). The Cardinals were led by Chris Johnson’s 16 points and they are now 8-3 in conference action and 15-6 for the season. The Cardinals also won the battle of the boards, with 51 rebounds compared to 39 for the Aggies.

OPSU head coach Jerry Olson said he felt the Aggies played hard, but that the Cardinals did a much better job of shooting and deserved the win.

The Aggies (now 5-5 in league play and 9-11 overall) were led by Trayvon Williams with 11 points and six rebounds. Reggie Lassiter scored ten and Marcale Marshall scored nine.

The Aggies will go against another tough Heartland team (St. Mary’s) on Saturday afternoon in San Antonio.

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