Box Score RICHARDSON, TX (02.04.12) - The UT Dallas men's basketball team is now just one win away from a fourth straight American Southwest Conference East Division title after the Comets earned a 66-59 win over second-place East Texas Baptist Saturday afternoon in the UTD Activity Center.
The Comets (now 17-4, 12-4 ASC) earned their eighth straight win and completed the season sweep of current ASC East second place ETBU to widen the game between the two teams for the division title race. The Tigers are now 12-9 overall (9-7 ASC).
The Comets, who struggled offensively early, turned up the defensive pressure to rally back from a 29-27 first-half deficit after halftime, and gradually pulled away from the Tigers for the second time in the last week. UTD defeated ETBU, 95-93, in double overtime last Saturday in Marshall. ETBU shot just 37.1 percent for the game on 23-of-62 shooting and were just 11-for-33 in the second half.
Chris Barnes sparked the Comets with 18 points and 12 rebounds while
Kyle Schleigh had 13 points and
Carter Nash contributed 10 points. ETBU's Jaron Joseph topped the scoring for the Tigers with 13 points while Jeremy LaGarde scored 11. In last week's game, that pair accounted for 48 points.
UTD opened the game with a 8-0 run, forcing Tiger head coach Bert West to call a time out and replace all five starters just 2:20 into the contest. The change of personnel sparked ETBU as the Tigers mounted a 12-4 run over the next five minutes to eventually knot the game, 12-12, with 10:27 left after a three-pointer by Jaron Joseph.
The Comets got a pair of free throws by
Dmitriy Chernikov and a three-pointer by
Chris Barnes to regain a five-point advantage two minutes later. LaGarde then scored seven unanswered points for ETBU to lift the visitors to their first lead of the game, 19-17, with 6:51 left in the half. The two teams traded leads three times over the final minutes of the half, the final lead change coming at the buzzer as Joseph drained a three to give the Tigers a 29-27 halftime lead.
The two teams traded leads and ties for the first five minutes of the second half before
Greg Chiasson nailed a three-pointer with 14:40 to go to give the Comets a lead (36-33) that they would never surrender. Once ahead, the Comets capped off the quick 10-0 run with a pair of layups from
Scott Hurley and
Carter Nash following ETBU turnovers, then a
Kyle Schleigh three that put UTD ahead 43-33 at 12:32. The Tigers finally returned to form, but UTD had an answer each time ETBU scored and were out to a 55-40 lead with just 6:06 remaining.
ETBU got a pair of three-pointers from Joseph and Monty Grays on a 12-3 run that got the Tigers as close as six (58-52) with 2:05 remaining, but UTD answered with a Barnes three and free throw. That, coupled with a
Mike Timmins layup stretch the lead back out to 10 (64-54) with just :26 left and the Comets were able to close it out.
After hitting just 9-of-21 shots in the first half, the Comets finished out the game shooting 50 percent (21-of-42) and hit 7-of-16 threes. ETBU nailed eight three-pointers, but took 24. The big advantage for the Comets was a the foul line, where UTD scored 17 points on 23 attempts. ETBU was just 5-of-5 for the game. ETBU out-rebounded the Comets, 37-27. Schleigh had a pair of blocked shots for UTD.
The Comets get to play their next two games at home, hosting Mississippi College on Thursday night, then Louisiana College Saturday afternoon. UTD finishes the year on the road the following week at UT Tyler and LeTourneau.
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