MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Trailing by double-digits near the end of the first half, the East Texas Baptist University men's basketball team flipped the script in the second half as they would cruise to an 82-66 win over Rhodes College. ETBU outscored Rhodes, 51-32, in the second half after trailing by three at the half. ETBU is now 1-0.
 
Jaden Conner finished with a game-high 14 points in his first game at ETBU while Christopher Haynes (13 points, seven rebounds), Landin Brown (10 points) and Robby Dooley (10 points, four assists) each reached double figures. For RC, Bryce Berry and Mitch Weatherford would score 11 points each while Koki Wiley grabbed 14 rebounds coming two points shy of a double-double.
 
Although RC would finish with a higher shooting percentage (45.6%-43.7%) and would outrebound ETBU, 44-31, ETBU's three-point shooting keyed them to the win as they made nine three's while RC had six. Defense also helped ETBU as they collected 12 steals and finished with 19 points off turnovers.
 
The Lynx would score the first five points of the first half before Haynes (16:45) would get the Tigers on the board. After a jumper by Conner cut the lead to 5-4 (15:39), the Lynx then took over as they went on a 14-5 run (15:05-10:19). They would then up their margin to double-digits on two difference occasions at 25-15 (7:56) and 34-23 (4:24). But that was all RC would score as ETBU would manage to finish the first half on an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 34-31 at the break.
 
After getting the first basket of the second half, ETBU would finally grab their first lead on a layup by Brown (17:15). Five more points for ETBU would complete a 9-0 run (17:42-16:28) in which they led by seven (47-40). Following four straight points by RC (16:13-15:25), ETBU then put up thirteen straight points which included five points from Conner (15:00-13:52) and threes from Jayden Williams (11:48) and Nathan Fontenot (10:16) while Cochran added a layup (9:27) to push ETBU's lead to 62-47. The lead shrank down to 62-54, but Haynes would get five straight points (6:50-6:18) while Fontenot added another three (5:54) as the lead shot up to 70-56. The Lynx would not get back into the game as ETBU settled for the 82-66 win.
 
The Tigers will head to Jackson, Miss., for their next game against Millsaps College on Saturday night. Tipoff is at 5:00 PM.