Alpine, Texas- In spite of an all-out effort across the board, the East Texas Baptist University men's basketball team came up short in the American Southwest Conference Championship game, 68-65 against Sul Ross State University. Following the loss, ETBU will go to 21-7 on the year. Both Darrice "Poncho" Whitley and Robby Dooley were named to the ASC All-Tournament team, with both players averaging 20.3 and 18.6 points respectively in the tournament. SRSU forward Caleb Thomasson was named the ASC Tournament Most Valuable Player.
 
Leading the way for ETBU was Dooley, who collected 15 points and seven rebounds. Westin Riddick added 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc, while Nathan Fontenot chipped in 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field.
 
SRSU's Stephen Walker scored the game's first bucket 20 seconds into the first half. Dooley would respond a minute later with a layup slicing through the defense to knot the score at 2-2 early in the half. Jola Otubu gave SRSU the lead (5-2) after knocking down a three pointer at the 17:29 mark of the first half. Riddick answered with a jumper from distance of his own to knot the ballgame at 5-5 just ten seconds later.
 
Dooley gave the Tigers their first lead of the contest, scoring on a layup on the fast break to bring the score to 7-5 at the 15:49 mark. SRSU responded with a 12-3 run, capped off by a bank shot by Tristen Licon, giving the Lobos the 17-10 advantage with 11:55 to go in the first half. Free throws by Dooley and a three pointer by Fontenot narrowed the gap to two, 17-15 less than a minute later.
 
Dooley had yet another answer for the Tigers, scoring on a layup to give his team their second lead of the night, at 20-18 at the 9:26 mark of the half. Both teams would continue to battle over the next nine minutes with the first half ending at a stalemate, 30-30.
 
In spite of the tied ballgame, ETBU shot just 10-of-33 (30.3 %) from the field and 5-of-14 (35.7 %) from the three point line. SRSU shot 41.2 percent from the field (14-of-34) and just 1-of-7 (14.3 %) from distance.
 
Thomasson broke the scoring seal to start the second half, knocking down a jump hook in the paint, putting the score at 32-30 in the first 30 seconds of the half. Gosey would have the answer scoring in the paint to tie the game at 32-32. Riddick would give ETBU its largest lead of the game knocking down a deep three pointer off the feed from Whitley, pushing the score to 35-32 with 18:29 to play.
 
It was a tug of war affair for much of the half, with each team battling back and forth over the next 15 minutes of play. ETBU found themselves down by four (59-55) with 3:58 to play, until a layup by Gosey plus the foul narrowed the gap to two, at 59-57. The free throw by Gosey would further narrow the SRSU lead to one (59-58), when CJ Ross and Thomasson combined to score the team's next eight points to increase the lead to three (66-63) with under a minute to play in the contest.
 
The Tigers refused to quit as Whitley scored on a reverse layup to cut the lead to one (66-65) with nine seconds to play. Licon would ultimately ice the game for the Lobos at the free throw line, giving the home team the 68-65 lead in the final four seconds of play. ETBU ultimately fell to SRSU 68-65 to end their postseason run.
 
SRSU will have an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, starting on March 3. ETBU will await an at large bid to the Tournament on Monday, Feb. 26.