HOUSTON - The UT Dallas men's basketball team lost to St. Thomas (Texas) 70-67 at the Jerabeck Activity and Athletic Center Saturday afternoon.

The Comets (1-2) and Celts (3-1), who are receiving votes in the D3hoops.com Preseason Top 25 Poll, battled down to the wire, exchanging the lead 12 times with 18 ties. The largest lead for either squad was five points by UTD at halftime - 33-28. 

A backdoor layup by freshman forward Jordan Balderaz put the Comets up 64-61 with 1:22 left. UST answered with a three-pointer by Angel Johnson 16 seconds later to knot the game ay 64-64. After a turnover, Calvin Williams Jr. converted a three-point play to give the Celts the lead for good at the 25 second mark.

Sophomore Ethan Van Horn cut the deficit to a point with a layup, but Wesley Hooker hit a pair of free throws to go back up by three. After being fouled on a three-point attempt with 1.7 seconds left, Luke Kiser made the first free throw, missed the second and had to force a miss on the third, which was rebounded by Hooker, who was fouled and made one of his two chances at the line to earn the three-point victory for the home team.

UTD shot 45.6 percent (26-for-57) from the field, 6-for-21 from three-point range and 9-of-15 at the line. They also had 37 rebounds, 13 assists, 24 turnovers, a blocked shot and six steals. UST shot 45.3 percent (24-for-53) overall, 3-of-18 from outside and 19-of-24 at the line with 29 rebounds, 13 assists, 17 turnovers, three blocks and nine steals.

UT Dallas Notes
- Senior Donovan Souter had 21 points and a career-best 11 rebounds for his second career double-double. He shot 8-of-14 from the field and made a pair of three-pointers.
- Freshman guard Matthew Soto had a season-best 11 points in 20 minutes off the bench.
- Van Horn scored a career-high 10 points on  4-of-4 shooting and pulled down three boards.
- Kiser finished with eight points, six rebounds, three steals and a season-high eight assists.
- Balderaz came up with eight points and six boards.
- Nick Donnelly scored seven points and dished out three assists.
- Freshman Elijah Portalis made his collegiate debut. 
- The Comets have outrebounded their opponents in all three games this year.

St. Thomas Notes
- Hooker and Williams led the Clets with 16 points each. Hooker also had seven rebounds and three steals, while Williams added three assists.
- Johnson finished with 11 points and made a pair of three-pointers.
- Nick Anderson had 10 points and four rebounds while brother Calen Anderson had 10 points, six boards and three assists.

Up Next
UTD will host Hendrix on Tuesday at 3 p.m. in the UTD Activity Center.