After a close fought first half, the Howard Payne University men’s basketball team wasn’t able to pull off the win in an 82-71 loss to East Texas Baptist University Thursday night at the Brownwood Coliseum.
The Jackets got little to no help from their bench with a mere two points, while the Tigers had 18 points from theirs.
The first half was close until ETBU outscored HPU by six in the last seven minutes and slowly spread their lead out to seven at the break, 31-38 ETBU.
In the second, the Tigers took off and grew their lead out to 20 points midway through the half with red-hot 63 percent shooting from the floor.
Freshman guard, Donavon Gardner led the way for the Jackets with 23 points and five rebounds. Kanyon Payne played a good all around game with seven points, six rebounds, four assists, and four steals.
ETBU had three players in double digits. Deba Egharevba finished with a double-double scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 boards. Jeremy LaGarde finished with 13 points, and Josh Chambers led the way with 27 points and six rebounds.
The Jackets were 40 percent from the floor for the game, making 24 of 60 shots and were 33 percent from the arc making six of 18 attempts.
ETBU shot 56 percent from the floor and 47 percent from behind the arc. The Tigers out-rebounded the Jackets 37-29, but committed 21 turnovers to the Jackets 16.
Howard Payne goes to 4-9 overall on the season and 3-6 in the American Southwest Conference. ETBU moves to 9-2 overall and 6-1 in the ASC.
The next game for the Jackets is at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 13 in Abilene against McMurry University.
