MARSHALL, Texas – Trailing by 17 points in the second half, the East Texas Baptist University men's basketball team pulled off a stunning come-from-behind win by forcing overtime and defeating the University of Ozarks, 92-85. This win keeps ETBU in fourth place of the American Southwest Conference East Division at 7-5 and now are 10-10 overall. This win now keeps ETBU two games ahead of Ozarks instead of being tied for fourth place.
The night was especially memorable for
Robby Dooley, who scored a career-high 33 points, which made him the 19
th player in program history to reach the 1,000 career point milestone.
Jordan Gray (six rebounds, five assists) scored 17 points for ETBU while
Nathan Fontenot tallied 15 points. Other contributions came from
Westin Riddick, who finished with nine points while defensively,
Zach Elliott blocked two shots on the night. Three Eagles reached double-figures as Lance Gardner had a team-high 15 points while Bryson Johnson and Kelvin Knight finished with 12 points apiece.
ETBU had a slight edge in field goal percentage (44.6%-44.1%) throughout the game. Although outscored in terms of bench production (42-12), ETBU managed to make 82.4% from the free throw line in contrast to UO's 73.9%. The Tigers also picked up four blocks and scored 22 points off turnovers.
The first half was evenly matched as Fontenot (19:16, 16:34) would score five of ETBU's first seven points before
Jarrell Taylor gave the Tigers their first lead at 10-8 (15:51) with a three-pointer. UO would answer back with an 11-4 run (14:59-11:21) to go up 19-14. ETBU's 8-1 response (10:55-5:59) was keyed by a pair of buckets from Gray (9:41, 8:05) while Dooley's free throws (5:59) gave ETBU a 22-20 lead. Another Eagles' run (5:45-3:57) took place with them scoring nine points in a row to go up 29-22. ETBU trailed by eight points (34-26) with two minutes to go, but managed to get four points as Dooley (1:58) and Chris Haynes (0:36) pulled ETBU within four at the half, 34-30.
UO kept the four point margin into the second half until Gray (18:06) and Dooley (17:23) canned three's that knotted the score at 40 all. But over the next seven minutes, the Eagles caught fire and pushed a 21-6 run to lead 61-46 (10:20). With 8:30 to go in the game, a UO three gave thems their largest cushion of the game at 68-51. What happened next saw an ETBU team charge back into the game with a 17-2 run (8:05-1:35) as Gray (8:05, 4:35, 1:59) and Riddick (5:32, 2:46) combined for 11 points as ETBU trailed 70-68. UO went back up by four on a layup before both teams traded free throws. A critical moment came when Fontenot was fouled on a three-point attempt and nailed all three free throws (0:29) to cut the lead to 74-73. The Eagles would extend it to three points with twenty-four seconds to go. After Dooley went one-for-two (0:20) from the line to cut the lead to 76-74, UO missed a one-and-one and the Tigers grabbed the ball. ETBU ran a play for Dooley, who cut to the basket and delivered a layup to finish regulation with 21 points and a 76-76 tie forcing another five minutes.
In overtime, ETBU would score 16 points in total while holding the Eagles to nine. Dooley would continue his hot performance as he tallied the first twelve points in overtime for the Tigers. This included hitting a free throw (1:52) that not only put ETBU up 86-79, but also put him in the 1,000 point club. Gray (0:14) and Fontenot (0:10, 0:08) tallied the final four points as ETBU completed the comeback with a big win.
ETBU resumes play this Saturday with a 3:30 PM tipoff against the University of Texas Tyler. The game will take place at Ornelas Gymnasium.
