RICHARDSON, Texas - Never giving up the lead and hitting 50% of their shots in the second half, the East Texas Baptist University men's basketball team didn't miss a beat as they took down the Blackburn College Beavers, 88-69, on the first day of the University of Texas Dallas Classic. With six wins in a row, ETBU is now 7-1 on the season.  

Jordan Gray led the way with 20 points making five three-pointers while Nathan Fontenot (15 points, five threes), Robby Dooley (11 points), and Jayden Williams (10 points) would tally double-digits, too. Landin Brown finished with six assists while Dooley finished with seven rebounds. Karson Hayes would finish as the game's high scorer with 38 for the Beavers.  

ETBU finished making 44.0% from the field, 30.3% from downtown and 68.2% from the free throw line. With 30 of their points coming in the paint, ETBU also collected 51 points from their bench players and 24 points off of turnovers.

Gray would kickstart ETBU's offense in the first half with nine of the Tigers' first 11 points on three-pointers (19:32, 17:41, 16:25) to take an early 11-5 lead. Following three points by the Beavers, ETBU would then go on a 14-2 run (14:24-10:04) with Fontenot hitting three three-pointers (13:06, 11:30, 10:04) in the stretch. The Beavers would make a small run to cut the lead to 30-19 (5:15) but the Tigers would respond with an 11-4 run (4:42-0:00) to head into the locker room with a large lead,  41-23.

Dooley would begin the second half scoring seven of the first 10 points (19:52-17:02) while ETBU would maintain a 20-point lead or more for much of the second half. Williams would make seven points in the second half, including a pair of three-pointers (11:38-11:01) while a three from Fontenot at 8:28 would give the Tigers their largest lead of 28 points (76-48). The Beavers would make a 21-12 run towards the end the game, but was too late as ETBU won, 88-69.  

ETBU will take on Wisconsin-Stevens Point tomorrow at 4:00 pm in the second day of the UTD Classic.