BROWNWOOD, Texas – Five players scored in double figures including Preston Hannah's team-high of 13 points as the Southwestern University men's basketball team downed Howard Payne University 76-63 in a balanced attack on Tuesday evening for the team's first win of the season.
After looking at the postgame official stats, one would have to key in on the 13-point difference coming from the four additional three-pointers and one additional free throw made by Southwestern (1-2).
Another glaring statistic would be how Josh Jones scored on a three-pointer that was assisted by Hannah for the first points for either team giving Southwestern a lead that it would not relinquish as the Pirates led for 39:45 out of the 40:00 of game play
HPU (1-1) would only get to within one point on three different occasions all before the Yellowjackets scored their tenth point as Southwestern slowly crept away.
A 24-7 run spanning 8:37 from the 12:10 to the 3:33 mark in the first half gave Southwestern a 34-16 lead that included six points each from Hannah and Shobby Enakpene as well as five from Calvon Williams as the Pirates were hot from the field shooting 8-for-11 and 2-for-3 from long range to go along with 6-for-8 from the charity stripe.
The second half did see the Yellowjackets come out of the halftime break ready to sting at will in order to get back into the game and they did just that using the final six points of the first half as well as the points scored in the second to utilize a 22-6 streak covering 7:41 of action to pull to within two at 43-41.
Southwestern, however, was immune to the sting and brushed it off to go on a game-clinching 18-2 run that ended with the Pirates owning their largest lead of the game with 8"31 to go on a made free throw from Jacob Hester.
It was the withstanding of the push and finding the right time to be able to counter with a run of their own that the Pirates were looking for and finally found it before giving up the lead and allowing the homestanding Yellowjackets any additional momentum they were building up.
Chris Smith collected himself a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double performance to go along with two blocks and a steal.
Brock Luechtefeld added 11 points while Jones and Zac Black contributed 10 points each as 10 of the 11 players that got into the game scored at least two points.
One thing that will need to be worked on in practice this week will be ball handling as Southwestern had 20 turnovers that led to 30 points for HPU while only causing 12 turnovers and converting for 11 points.
UP NEXT
Southwestern will finally get to play its first home games of the season this weekend when the Pirates host the Paul Peak Classic with LeTourneau University, Trinity University (TX) and Hamilton (N.Y.) College participating. Southwestern will take on LeTourneau on Saturday while concluding the event with a matchup against Hamilton on Sunday. Trinity will play the opposite schedule. Games with Southwestern in them will start at 7:30 p.m. CST while games with Trinity will start at 5:30 p.m. CST.
