TYLER, TX---The Mustangs clinched a spot in the 2020 RRAC Tournament on Thursday night with a big 107-94 victory over the Texas College Steers. The tournament appearance will be the first for the team since the 2017-2018 season and only the 6th appearance in school history. The victory also guarantees the Mustangs a winning record in both conference play and their overall record. Those feats together haven't been accomplished since the 2014-2015 season when the team was 20-12 overall and 12-8 in conference. 

"What a great game and environment for the guys to play in" said Head Coach Cory Hitchcock." The gym was packed, it was loud and both teams played a great game. Joshua (Harris) and Akeem (Black) had big games offensively for us tonight. Their teammates did a great job finding and getting them the ball in the right spots and Joshua and Akeem finished plays. To win our 10th conference game and to get our 15th win over all is huge for our program. These guys are starting to play at a high level and realizing what it will take to compete with the top teams in our conference. We will celebrate this one tonight but tomorrow we need to get locked in for the next game. It's time for us to see if we can win back to back games on the road. That's what good teams do!"

Joshua Harris had a career-high in points on Thursday with 38 points on 14-23 shooting in 35 minutes of play. The senior was 10-11 from the FT line and had 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 block in the victory. The 38 points puts Harris in a tie for 5th place in points scored in a single game with Daris Revels back in 2015. 

His fellow senior Akeem Black had a fantastic game scoring 28 points on 8-17 shooting. Black played in only 28 minutes, but made his time worth it with 16 trips to the FT line and recording a double-double with 10 reounds. Derrick Hall was 3 points away from a triple-double as he had 12 assists, 11 rebounds and 7 points on the evening. Nathaniel White (13 points) & Thurbil Bile (10 points) were the other Mustangs in double-figures. 

The Mustangs had 28 team assists which ties their season high for assists in a game which they set on Dec 7 against OLLU and January 30th against Huston-Tillotson. The Mustangs also scored 27 points in transition while shooting 54.1% from the floor. The 107 points is also the 2nd time the Mustangs have reached the triple-digit mark as they did so on January 16th against Texas College. The victory on Thursday puts Head Coach Cory Hitchcock into 3rd place all-time in wins by a Head Coach in school history in just his first season. 

USW takes on Jarvis Christian on Saturday afternoon with tip-off scheduled for 3:00 PM MST.