RICHARDSON, Texas - The UT Dallas men's basketball lost to East Texas Baptist 74-72 at the UTD Activity Center in front of a Homecoming crowd of 724 Saturday afternoon.

Despite the loss, the Comets (20-5, 15-3 ASC) will be the second seed in next week's American Southwest Conference Tournament. They receive a bye to the Semifinals on Friday, February 24 at 5 p.m. and will face the winner of ETBU (20-5, 14-4 ASC) and LeTourneau. The Semifinals and Finals will be top-seeded Mary Hardin-Baylor's campus in Belton, Texas.

ASC TOURNAMENT RELEASE & BRACKET

UTD shot a blazing 68.2 percent (15-for-22) in the first half, including going 8-for-12 from three-point territory. They led the Tigers 39-33 going into the break. ETBU opened the second half with an 11-0 to go up 44-39 before the home team regained the lead with an 8-0 rally, ending at the 13:38 mark.

From there, the teams swapped leads five times and tied on three occasions the rest of the game. A pair of free throws by Comet freshman Austin Page gave UTD a 69-66 lead with 3:15 remaining. A three-point play by forward Darry Moore and basket by Jaden Conner off a steal put ETBU up 71-69 with 2:05 left. 

UTD sophomore Luke Kiser made a pair of free throws at 1:14 to knot the game at 71-71. Aaron Gregg answered with a three-pointer 20 seconds later. Rob Wade made one of two free throws with 38.5 seconds left to make the game 74-72. After the Tigers missed a shot, the Comets got the rebound and a three-pointer at the buzzer was off the mark.

UT Dallas shot 57.1 percent overall (24-for-42), 12-for-24 from outside and 12-for-20 at the free throw line. They also recorded 24 rebounds, 18 assists, four blocks, seven steals and 18 turnovers.

ETBU shot 51 percent (26-of-51) from the field, 3-for-10 from three-point range and 19-for-22 at the stripe with 23 boards, 20 assists, one block, eight steals and 12 turnovers.

UT Dallas Notes
- Four seniors were honored before the game - Hunter Stevens, James Curtis, Kyle Poerschke and James Curtis.
- Guard Donovan Souter scored a season-best 16 points, going 6-for-9 overall and hitting four three-pointers.
- Stevens was 3-for-3 from outside, scoring 12 points in the first half to go with three steals.
- Sophomore Nick Donnelly also made four shots from outside, en route to 12 points.
- Kiser finished with eight points, four boards and four assists.
- Poerschke had seven points, five rebounds and a pair of steals.
- Isaac blocked three shots and Curtis dished out three assists.
- Page also scored seven points.

East Texas Baptist Notes
- Moore led the Tigers with 25 points on 8-of-11 shooting and went 9-for-9 at the line. He also had five rebounds.
- Kevin Charles scored 20 points with five boards, going 8-for-10 from the floor.
- Gregg had a double-double of 13 points, 10 assists and recorded five steals.

Up Next
The Comets will play either the Tigers or the YellowJackets in Friday's ASC Championship Semifinals at the Mayborn Campus Center in Belton.