MARSHALL, Texas – Playing in front on an electric and hyped up crowd for the opening game of the 2018-19 season, the East Texas Baptist University men's basketball team would use a 17-1 start in the first half to propel them to an 87-71 victory over Texas Lutheran University in the ASC/SCAC Crossover. This marks the fifth straight season ETBU has won their opening game since the 2013-14 season.
ETBU had three players in double digits with
Robby Dooley leading the way with a game-high 21 points on nine-of-11 shooting and dishing out four assists.
Westin Riddick had 14 points, which included four three-pointers while
Landin Brown collected 11 points on five-of-nine shooting and finished with five steals.
Jordan Gray led with nine rebounds in addition to scoring eight points. TLU's top scorers were Jacob Kouremetis and Sebastian Andrade, who both had 12 points while Harris Jowell had 11 points.
ETBU succeeded in having a 55.6%-32.5% edge in field goal shooting and 40%-25% edge in three-pointers made while outscoring TLU 44-30 in the paint. They also outrebounded the Bulldogs 46-38 while they never conceded a lead. TLU would make 68.4% of their free throws and managed 12 offensive rebounds while holding ETBU to five.
The Tigers would catch fire early scoring the first nine points (20:00-17:53) with Reddick (19:47), Brown (19:21),
Zach Elliott (19:01), and Dooley (17:53) each scoring on the run. TLU would get on the board with a free throw (16:57) only for ETBU to score eight straight points (16:47-16:27) in twenty seconds with
Gavin Sabo scoring four of them (16:40, 16:27) to go up 17-1. TLU would respond with a 12-5 run which brought the Tiger lead down to single digits at 22-13 (11:41). ETBU then pushed the lead to as large as fifteen on three different occasions at 32-17 (7:15) after Dooley free throws, 36-21 (5:20) after Reddick free throws, and 38-23 (3:50) after a
Nathan Fontenot layup. But after that, ETBU then escalated the lead to 48-23 with three's and layups from Gray (3:14, 1:25) and Cochran (2:21, 0:47). Five points from TLU would bring the score to 48-28 at the half.
The second half would have the Bulldogs come out with a 16-3 run (20:00-15:31) to trail 51-44. Sabo would key a 13-5 run (14:50-11:44) with four points while Dooley added five in the run as the Tigers led 64-49. But again, TLU would bring the deficit to 66-59 (9:30). This would wind up being the last time the lead would be down to single digits as the Tigers would grab the double-digit lead back at 72-61 following a three from
Jarrell Taylor (7:06). Dooley would score the next four points (6:37-4:01) while Riddick tallied a three (3:30) which made the score at 79-61. ETBU's largest lead in the second half would grow to nineteen after a Brown layup (2:02) at 83-64. In the end, the Bulldogs scored seven of the final 11 points, which only led to ETBU's win at the final score of 87-71.
ETBU will take on Schreiner University at 6:00 PM on Saturday in Ornelas Gym in the ASC/SCAC Crossover.
