JACKSON, MS (02.04.17) - After a sluggish opening half, the UT Dallas men's basketball team turned a five-point halftime deficit into a 70-56 road win over Belhaven Saturday afternoon in a non-conference American Southwest Conference meeting.

With their second win over the Blazers in the last two weeks, the Comets (8-13) have now won five straight games after starting the season 3-13. They will look for six in a row Thursday when they visit Louisiana College in UTD's third game of a four-game road swing. Game time is 7:30 p.m. in Pineville, La. 

UTD shot 48.3 percent from the field in the second half to turn around the contest as freshman Dimitrius Underwood recorded his third double-double in five games, finishing with 10 points and a season-high 14 rebounds. Caleb Banks led the Comets with 13 points, adding nine assists, while Kyle Coulter finished with 12 points and 11 boards for his third straight double-double. Reagan Keogh came off the bench for 11 points to round out the Comets in double figures. Caleb Banks was credited with nine assists and had four steals.

UTD fell into a huge hole to open the game, trailing 25-9 with 8:54 to play in the first half. But the Comets turned the tide, finishing the half on a 22-6 run to close the gap to 31-26 at intermission. Even with the late surge, UTD still hit just 10-of-35 shots in the first half for a 28.6 percentage.

The Comets wasted little time taking over the lead as Kyle Coulter's layup at the 16:27 mark put UTD ahead 34-33  and they followed that with a 18-9 run that pushed the lead into double figures (52-42) on a Jon Hatcher three-pointer with 7:14 to go. Belhaven was able to cut the lead to nine twice in the final seven minutes, but UTD never let the lead get any closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

UTD dominated the rebounding battle, out-boarding the Blazers,  51-33. Defensively, the Comets held Belhaven to just 35 percent shooting, including a 29.0 percent second half (9-of-31). The Blazers canned 12 three-pointers to keep the game as close as it was.