RICHARDSON, Texas - Competing for a chance to finish second in the ASC East Division, the East Texas Baptist University men's basketball team couldn't find the game winning basket in the final seconds as they fell 86-82 to the University of Texas Dallas Comets. This loss finishes ETBU's regular season at 19-6 overall and 13-5 in conference play, which puts them in third place in the ASC East.
Two players for ETBU scored over 20 points as
Darrice Whitley was the leading scorer with 25 points while
Robby Dooley collected a double-double with 11 rebounds to go along with his 21 points. For UTD, five players reached double figures, including Dimities Underwood (17 points), Reagan Keogh (12 points), Jon Hatcher (12 points), Michael Forster (12 points), and Caleb Banks (11 points).
ETBU started the game on a three by Whitley (19:22), who would follow up with another basket at 18:38) to make it 5-2. ETBU would then go on a 7-5 run (18:00-15:09) to lead 12-8 before the first media timeout. ETBU's momentum would continue as they would increase their lead to 21-14 after a three by
Westin Riddick (14:03), a layup by
Landin Brown, and a layup (12:18) and jumper (11:47) by Whitley. But UTD would soon charge back with a 14-1 run (11:20-8:03) to lead 28-22. ETBU would cut the deficit to 28-26 (6:59) on
Gavin Sabo (7:42) and Dooley (6:59) layups before the Comets would answer with six straight points for a 31-26 edge (5:34). ETBU then scored seven straight points on a three (5:28) and a jumper by Whitley (4:20) and Dooley (4:55) for a 33-32 lead. But UTD would end the first half with a 12-3 run to lead 44-36 at halftime.
ETBU would start the second half with a a 7-3 run (20:00-17:47) to cut the lead to 47-43. But the Comets would answer with a 9-4 run (17:07-14:29) to go up 56-47. However, ETBU would answer with six straight points on layups by Dooley (14:03), Brown (13:29), and Whitley (12:43) to trail 56-53. After UTD's next run made it 66-60 (9:26), ETBU would storm back and finally grabbed the 68-67 lead again on a layup by Sabo (6:39). For the remainder of the game, neither team had a lead of more than three points as the Comets would grab a three-point lead at 73-70 (3:46). ETBU would struggle to tie up the game in the next minute before they finally grabbed the lead again at 78-77 (2:12) on a layup by Dooley. The game was then tied at 79 with 1:51 left before Dooley gave ETBU a one-point lead at 80-79 (1:14). UTD would then sink the jumper to give them a one point lead at 81-80 with 1:06 to play. After ETBU missed the game-tying three, the Comets extended the lead to 83-80 on a jumper with nineteen seconds to spare. Brown would cut it to 83-82 on a layup six seconds later before UTD made one free throw (0:11) to lead 84-82. ETBU's chance to tie the game was denied and the Comets would sink the free throws to get the victory.
As the #3 seed in the upcoming ASC conference tournament, ETBU will travel to Alpine, Texas, for their first round matchup against the #2 seed in the ASC West Division in the form of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.
