Victoria, TX-  The Coastal Bend Cougars (13-7) traveled down the road to Victoria, Texas to battle the Victoria College Pirates (3-18) on Wednesday night. The annual meeting between the conference rivals was dubbed the South Texas Clash.

The Sports Center in Victoria was densely packed for the first ever, South Texas Clash, a meeting between Region XIV neighbors. Hype surrounding the 1st annual event began to build days before the tipoff. The game started in thunderous fashion, just aer the twilight player introductions, as the Pirates windmilled their first two points of the game.

The Cougars would respond with an 8-0 run as Freshman Willie Williams controlled the game on both ends early. Strong play from Sophomores Breion Powell and Malik Nash, along with a deep three from Freshman Jamil Muttlib, helped Coastal bend push the lead to 11 midway through the contest, 23-12. The Pirates would fight back to get in the game with the half-time score, 34-27 in the Cougars favor.

After the break, the pair would jostle back and forth trading basket for basket until a devastating dunk by Powell broke the game open. The Cougars would run up the lead to 20 points by the second media timeout at ten minutes, capped off by a break away dunk by Sophomore Taevon Anderson. The Cougars would get the advantage up to its largest margin at twenty-four, 80-56. Cougars win, 86-68.

Key players of the game: Sophomore Breion Powell led all scorers with 22 points. Powell also added 10 rebounds and 5 assists. Freshman Jamil Muttilib poured in 16 points. Sophomores Malik Nash and Taevon Anderson added 14 and 10, respectively. Freshman Willie Williams just missed on another double double scoring 9 points and pulling in 11 boards.

The win improves the Cougars record to 14-7, 7-3 in conference play. They will host Lamar State - PA on Saturday. The loss drops the Pirates to 3-19, 2-9 in conference play.

(by Brandon Martinez Menʼs Basketball Assistant)