A late rally by UAFS fell just short on Thursday night as the Lions lost a hard-fought Heartland Conference game 64-59 to the Texas A&M International Dustdevils at the Stubblefield Center.

UAFS (9-17, 3-11) split its regular-season series against Texas A&M International (6-18, 3-10), which lost to the Lions in the first game of the series at the Kinesiology and Convocation Building in Laredo, Texas.

The Lions slipped into ninth place in the conference behind the Dustdevils and their Saturday opponent, the St. Mary's Rattlers (11-14, 3-10, which lost to the Rogers State Hillcats on Thursday night.

Only eight of the nine league teams will advance to the conference tournament, which begins on Thursday, March 7, at the Union Multipurpose Athletic Center in Tulsa, Okla.

It was the first of two final regular-season home games for UAFS, which will host St. Mary's at 3 p.m. on Saturday at the Stubblefield Center. The Lions will finish the regular season on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. against the Oklahoma Christian Eagles at the Eagles Nest in Oklahoma City.

UAFS shot 36 percent from the field (21 of 58) – it was 6-of-26 shooting from 3-point range – and shot only 58 percent from the free-throw line (11 of 19). Freshman forward David Ward, who hit two of his three 3-pointers in the final two minutes to cut a double-digit deficit to single digits, finished with 16 points, five assists and two steals, while senior guard Chris Crawford had 11 points.

Freshman guard JonDarius Warren had a team-high six rebounds, but the Lions were still out-rebounded by seven rebounds (40-37).

Texas A&M International, which led 29-27 at halftime, shot 41 percent from the field (21 of 51) – it was 4-of-22 shooting from 3-point range – and shot 75 percent from the free-throw line (18 of 24). Junior guard Brent Finn had a team-high 18 points, senior guard Xabier Gomez had 17 points and senior center Damon Leach had 10 points and a team-leading nine rebounds.
 
MEN
TEXAS A&M INTERNATIONAL 64, UAFS 59
Texas A&M International       29        35        --          64
UAFS                                      27        32        --          59
Texas A&M International (6-18, 3-10): Finn 18, Gomez 17, Leach 10, Highley 6, Spinuzza 6, Higgins 4, Jackson 2, Johnson 1
UAFS (9-17, 3-11): Ward 16, Crawford 11, Hawley 9, Williams 6, Boyer 5, Morgan 4, Warren 3, Bowie 2, Sivins 2, Ekezie 1