WALLA WALLA, WA. (03.01.19) – The 2018-19 season came to an abrupt end Friday for the American Southwest Conference champion UT Dallas men's basketball team as 11^th-ranked Pamona-Pitzer stifled the Comets, 58-37, in the opening round of the NCAA Division 3 National Tournament.
 
The Sagehens, who will advance to the second round with a 26-2 record, held the Comets (24-5) to just 16-of-61 shooting (26.2 percent) for the game while hitting 8 three-pointers on the night. Pamona-Pitzer meets the winner of the Whitman/Texas Lutheran matchup in Round 2 Saturday night.
 
The Sagehens opened up the game with a 9-0 run before Michael Forster finally scored on a layup 4:30 into the contest. A Forster three-pointer a minute later got UTD as close as 9-7, but Pamona-Pitzer responded with a 14-2 run over the next 10 minutes that opened up a 23-9 lead with 3:32 to go in the half. At intermission, the Sagehens were up, 30-16, and had held UTD to just 21.2 percent shooting in the first 20 minutes.
 
P-P then made things worse in the first six minutes of the second period, opening the half on a 14-4 run and led by 24 (44-20) with 14:24 remaining. UTD trimmed the lead down to as close as 13 points twice (46-33 at the 7:29 mark on a Curtis Allen free throw, and then 50-37 on a Hans Burwitz layup with 3:33 remaining), but the Comets did not score again.
 
Forster was the Comets' top scorer with just nine points while ASC East Division Player of the Year Dimitrius Underwood was held to just one basket. No other UTD player scored more than five points in the loss.
 
The Comets did hold the Sagehens to just 38.3 percent (23-of-60) shooting, but were out-rebounded by the Sagehens, 50-30.