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Belton, TX – The East Texas Baptist University men's basketball team stormed back from a double-digit second-half deficit and dominated the final minutes in an 85-77 victory over McMurry University in an American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament first round game Friday in Belton. The Tigers improve to 15-11 on the season with the victory and post their first-ever win in the ASC Championship Tournament. The loss ends McMurry's season with a 17-9 record.
ETBU scored the game's first five points, but McMurry stormed back and led by as many as eight points before settling for a 38-31 halftime lead. McMurry would open an 11-point lead at 44-33 with 16:08 left in the game, but the Tigers used a 15-5 run to close to within 49-48 with 11:26 to go. McMurry pushed it back to nine points at 59-50, but ETBU once again answered, taking a 65-64 lead with 5:05 remaining. McMurry tied the game at 65, but the Tigers used an 8-0 run to open up a 73-65 lead with 2:40 left to play. Back-to-back three-pointers from Chris Hergenreter pulled McMurry to within three at 78-75, but James Morman hit six straight free-throws down the stretch to ice the victory for ETBU.
Morman finished with 25 points and 11 rebounds to lead ETBU and Deba Egharevba added a double-double with 16 points and a game-high 11 boards. Jacob Turnipseed added 17 points and he hit 5-9 from three-point range for the Tigers. Josh Chambers added 10 points and an ASC quarterfinal record seven blocked shots for ETBU. Steven Luckey led McMurry with 28 points and he hit 6-10 from beyond the arc. Jeremie Hart added 19 points and a team-high nine rebounds for McMurry and Ryan Boyd added 12 points. Robert Moreno set a new ASC quarterfinal game record with nine assist for McMurry.
ETBU shot 47 per cent from the field and held McMurry to 42 per cent shooting. The Tigers also out rebounded McMurry 43-30 and blocked nine shots in the victory. McMurry went 12-29 from three-point range while the Tigers hit 9-24 from long-range.
The Tigers will now face defending ASC Champion U.T.-Dallas in a 2:00 PM semifinal game tomorrow. The Comets swept ETBU in two regular season meetings between the two teams.
