HONOLULU – The University of Arkansas at Monticello men's basketball team took all three of its games at the DII Power Invitational in Honolulu, Hawaii when it defeated Saint Martin's University on Saturday, 93-68. KJ Lesure continued his impressive play almost earning a triple-double with 20 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.


UAM continued its hot play in the Pacific especially on offense shooting 50.8 percent from the field and 54.2 percent from the three-point line.
 
On defense, the Weevils held SMU to 68 points and forced 16 Saints turnovers.
 
The first few minutes were slow for UAM, but that was quickly erased after the Weevils began hitting some shots and getting to the line. With Saint Martin's leading 6-5 early, Wanya King helped erase the deficit with a triple. He then hit another one a few seconds later and hit a free throw. To follow King's stretch, Lesure got to the line for pair of free throws and so did Kwame McBean to help give UAM a 17-11 lead.
 
Down the stretch in the first half, UAM pushed its lead to double digits. With a little over four minutes left in the period, Hardy would get in on the three-point action and McBean later followed with a two-point bucket. Hardy would soon after hit another three, and McBean followed him again with a basket in the paint. Lesure later concluded scoring in the half for the period with a basket and UAM went into halftime with a 45-31 lead.
 
The Weevils then started the second half pretty hot to get its advantage to 21 points. Following a pair of Saints baskets, UAM went on a 13-4 run thanks to baskets from Denzel McDuffey, Justin Slocum and Lesure, helping spring the lead to 58-37.
 
Later, the Weevils go their lead to its highest total of 29. King continued his hot three-point shooting with, Hardy also followed with a couple baskets and eventually got to the line to help UAM to a 71-42 advantage.
 
UAM continued to persist as the scoring continued throughout the remainder of the half eventually going on to win the game, 93-68.
 
Lesure led all scorers with 20 points while also tallying his nine assists and eight rebounds. He finishes the DII Power Invitational with per game averages of 24.3 in points and 5.3 in both assists and rebounds. He also shot 61.0 percent from the floor and 52.1 percent from three-point range.
 
In total, UAM had six players in double-figures in Lesure, Slocum (17pts), King (15pts), Hardy (13pts), Marcus Gilbert (12pts) and McBean (10pts).
 
McDuffey led all rebounders with 12 boards.
 
UAM concludes the week with victories over Alaska-Anchorage, Hawaii Pacific and Saint Martin's to improve to 11-2 overall, ending their 2019 portion of the 19-20 schedule.
 
UP NEXT
The Weevils will begin the 2020 portion of their 2019-20 schedule with a Great American Conference matchup against Southwestern Oklahoma State University on January 2nd. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.