JACKSON, Miss. - Encountering another thrilling contest, the East Texas Baptist University men's basketball team held on to an 84-83 victory over the Belhaven University Blazers in American Southwest Conference East Division play. ETBU has won their last eight games to improve to 8-0 in the East Division and are 15-2 overall.
 
Robby Dooley finished as the game's top scorer with 21 points and 11 rebounds for another double-double. Jordan Gray added 17 points on four three-pointers while Westin Riddick (four three-pointers) and Christopher Haynes each finished with 12 points. BU had four guys in double-digits in Luke Couch (18 points), Joshua Roberts (17 points), Matthew McMillan (16 points), and Brosnan Cooks (13 points).

While the Tigers barely outshot the Blazers by one percent (47.8%-46.8%), BU had better three-point (48.6%-38.7%) and free throw (66.7%-50.0%) percentages. The Blazers would out rebound the Tigers, 36-34, and outscored ETBU's bench 26-15. ETBU scored 20 points off of 14 Blazers turnovers.  

Battling to an 8-8 tie early in the half, ETBU would soon take control with a 11-2 run (14:42-11:50) as Riddick would sink three straight trey's (14:42-13:09) to give ETBU a 19-10 lead. BU responded with a 13-2 run (11:50-9:57) to lead 23-21. A pair of threes from Gray (8:51, 8:26) gave ETBU a 29-27 lead before each team exchanged buckets. BU would grab their largest lead of the half with a 40-34 edge (4:50) while ETBU would managed to cut the deficit to 46-43 at the break.  
 
After conceding the first basket of the second half, ETBU would knot the game at 51 with 14:15 left to go. Each team would continue to battle in the second half until ETBU opened up a 66-61 lead with three's by Jayden Williams (9:35) and Nathan Fontenot (8:45). Haynes (7:36, 6:41) and Dooley (6:07) brought ETBU's lead to 75-67. The Blazers, though, wouldn't go away as they stormed back on an 10-2 run (5:23-2:46) to tie the game at 77. Following an exchange of three's, ETBU would take the lead for good on a clutch layup by Dooley (1:17). One more free throw from Gray (0:28) put the Tigers up by four, 84-80, and though the Blazers would sink a late three-pointer to make the score closer at 84-83, the Tigers escaped with a win.

ETBU will have LeTourneau University next week for two games with the first taking place on Thursday at 7:30 PM in Longview, Texas.