PINEVILLE, La. - Plagued by a rocky first half, the East Texas Baptist University men's basketball team fell to Louisiana College, 76-65, in their final regular season. ETBU ends the year at 14-8 overall and 7-5 in the American Southwest Conference East Division. They will miss making the ASC Tournament due to winning percentage as the fifth place team in the East Division.
Chris Haynes was one of four Tigers to score more than 10 points as he led with 16.
Charlie Cochran added 14 points while
Aaron Gregg (13 points) and
Jayden Williams (11 points) combined for 24 points. The Wildcats were led by 27 points and 15 rebounds from Galen Smith while Ferontay Banks had 10 assists.
Although the Tigers outshot the Wildcats from downtown (35.7%-25%), ETBU was unable to put more field goals down, 45.9%-41.2%, in the field goal percentage department. LC dominated the glass picking up 43 rebounds and holding ETBU to just 23. They also dished out 20 assists.
The Wildcats opened the contest with a 13-6 run (20:00-16:18). Behind four points from Cochran, ETBU would trim the deficit to 14-12. Another Wildcats run would put them up 22-15 before ETBU would answer with seven straight points as a pair of
Logan Blow free throws would knot the score at 22 (5:16). That's when the Wildcats would end the first half with 11 points in the final five minutes to lead 33-22 at the break.
A basket from Haynes brought ETBU within nine points to start the second half, 33-24. However, the Tigers wouldn't be able to get closer than three possessions for the rest of the half while LC would push their lead to 14 in the game. Down 57-43, the Tigers would get five points, including a three from Williams (6:05) to bring come within nine points. Yet, LC would extend their lead to 14, 63-49. Despite the Tigers bringing the game to within seven, 67-60, they couldn't keep LC from making free throws down the stretch as the Wildcats went on to win.
With Texas Dallas winning over Hardin-Simmons University, the Comets' win percentage is better than ETBU's sending them ahead into the ASC Tournament. The seedings are based on winning percentage due to games being lost to COVID.
