PINEVILLE, La. – The comeback effort against the Louisiana College Wildcats came up short as the East Texas Baptist University men's basketball fell, 81-76, in Pineville on Saturday. The loss drops ETBU to 12-11 overall and 8-6 in the ASC East division.

Three Tiger players reached double figures with Nathan Fontenot and Christopher Haynes leading with 17 points apiece while Jacob Owens-Bush tallied 15 points and collected a team-high eight rebounds. For LC, Kae'ron Baker finished as the team's leading scorer with 26 points while Kenderius Wallace and Devon Washington notched 14 points.

Over the course of the game, ETBU barely outshot LC 51.9%-51.7% from the field but they were outshot from the three-point line (42.9%-26.1%) and outrebounded (31-28). ETBU did force 13 LC turnovers and capitalized for 16 points off those turnovers while pouring in 19 second chance points.

ETBU started the contest by trading points with LC as Spencer Cochran (17:58-16:12) tallied six of the first eight points for ETBU in an 8-6 lead before the media timeout. LC would answer with a 10-4 run (15:32-12:04) to grab the lead at 18-12. ETBU's 6-3 run (11:49-10:00) would be followed by a 6-3 run for LC of their own to go up 28-21 (8:24). Fontenot (7:09) and Jarrell Taylor (6:14) cut the deficit down to 28-26 before LC would run off nine of the game's next 11 points (5:48-2:00) for a 37-28 lead.  LC would grab a 39-33 edge going into halftime.

ETBU slowly clawed back to start the second half with a 5-2 run (20:00-18:54) to trail 41-38. LC would then scratch a 9-5 run (18:04-14:20) to lead by seven (50-43) before nine straight points between Haynes (13:27), Nolan Johnson (13:03, 12:29), and Jacob Owens-Bush (11:43) gave ETBU a 52-50 advantage. The lead wouldn't last as LC push the tempo to a 19-9 run (11:18-6:34) to go up 69-61. Extending the margin to 72-63 (5:39), LC watched as ETBU came within two points at 72-70 (3:55). After five straight points from the Wildcats (3:40-2:03), ETBU managed to get within three points following a Fontenot (0:49) three at 79-76. But LC would ice the game with the 81-76 win on a layup (0:07) in the final seconds.

ETBU will have their final road game of the season with a quick thirty-minute drive to Longview to take on LeTourneau University. Tip off starts at 7:30 PM on Tuesday.