LONGVIEW, TX (01.13.18) - A second-half surge by the American Southwest Conference East Division pre-season favorite LeTourneau YellowJackets left the UTD men's basketball team behind in an 80-63 loss in an early-season battle between East Division leaders Saturday afternoon.
The YellowJackets (12-2, 6-1), who were the East Division champions and ASC runners-up last season, picked up their sixth straight win by putting 46 points on the board after intermission. The Comets (9-5, 5-2) actually cut the second half advantage down to 41-40 with 15:17 remaining, but LETU raced away with a 34-23 run to finish the game.
The loss dropped UTD, which had entered the game tied for the East Division lead, into second place.
After a slow start, the Comets went on the offensive early and had a 16-14 lead with 10:42 to go in the first half. But the Jackets countered with an 18-4 run over the next five minutes and were up 32-19 before settling for a 38-26 halftime lead. After LETU made it 41-28 1:30 into the second half,
Reagan Keogh,
Dimitrius Underwood and
Caleb Banks led a 12-0 UTD run to cut the lead down to one point; but LETU resonded with a 7-0 answer to start pushing the lead to its final margin. With the reserves in the game, the Jackets stretched their lead to 20 points (80-60) for their largest lead with :23 remaining.
Underwood (17 points), Banks (14 pts) and
Jon Hatcher (13 points) all finished in double figures. Hatcher had three 3-point baskets, but the rest of the team contributed just three more long-range missiles in a 6-of-20 shooting day from beyond the arc. The YellowJackets finished with 11 three-pointers in 27 attempts.
LETU hit just 26-of-62 from the field (41.9 percent), but UTD was chilly from the floor, hitting just 19-of-69 attempts (27.5 percent).
INSIDE THE NUMBERS - Other than the shooting percentages, the rest of the game was fairly even. LETU won the rebounding battle by just a 45-43 margin, and the two teams were almost dead even in turnovers, 13-12. The Comets did take advantage of 17 offensive rebounds to score 15 second-chance points.
UP NEXT - UTD returns to its home court on Thursday, Jan. 18, in another East Division showdown as UT Tyler visits for a 7:30 pm tipoff.
