Box Score
Belton, TX – The East Texas Baptist University men's basketball team took control of the game midway through the second half and the Tigers held off a late Texas Lutheran comeback bid to post a 76-68 victory in the Cru Holiday Classic Thursday evening in Belton. ETBU improves to 8-2 on the season with the win. The loss drops Texas Lutheran to 3-5 on the year.
ETBU scored the game's first five points and nine of the first 11 before TLU started to chip away. The Bulldogs stayed within eight points the rest of the half before ETBU opened up a 30-21 halftime lead. The Tigers quickly pushed the lead to double figures in the second half and held a 71-54 lead with 1:06 remaining. TLU would close the game with a 14-5 run to cut it to eight, but that's as close as the Bulldogs could get.
Josh Chambers topped ETBU with 16 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. He also blocked seven shots. Jaron Joseph had 11 points and R.J. Prince and Deba Egharevba added 10 points apiece for the Tigers.
Brad Howard came off the bench to score a game-high 23 points for TLU. Henry Flores added 14 points and Isaac Williams grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
The Tigers shot 46 percent from the field and outrebounded the Bulldogs 41-34. That advantage helped ETBU overcome 24 turnovers. TLU shot 41 percent from the field but went just 2-7 from three-point range.
The game was the opening tilt of the final day of the 5th annual Cru Holiday Classic. Both teams were making their first appearance in the tournament and went 1-1 during the two-day event.
