LeTourneau University junior Giovanny Thompson had a career-best 22 points, 16 rebounds and five blocks to lead the LeTourneau men's basketball team to a 75-62 win over the University of the Ozarks on Friday afternoon in Longview.
 
The YellowJackets (3-4, 2-2 ASC) evened its record at .500 in the conference on the strength of the play of Thompson (pictured #45) and freshman Kelby Schimming (pictured #32) on the inside and freshman Sam Talbert on the outside. Schimming added 10 points and eight rebounds and Talbert was potent from outside with 20 points, where he knocked down 4 first half 3-pointers.
 
The Eagles (4-5, 2-4 ASC) were led by the tandem of Kelby Robinson and Jace Richardson, who scored 30 and 10 points, respectively.
 
After an early 2-0 deficit, Talbert made the first of four 3 pointers to put LeTourneau ahead 3-2 with 18:25 to play in the first 20 minutes and for the rest of the contest. The YellowJackets raced out to a 20-8 lead in the opening 7:52 of the contest. In the early spurt, Talbert had three 3 pointers and the frontline play accounted for eight more points.
 
Later, in the half, on three occasions it was the YellowJackets who built 14-point leads to take a 37-25 lead into the intermission. The offense was clicking for LeTourneau shooting at a 43.2% clip but also outscored Ozarks 22-10 on points in the paint, 16-7 in points off turnovers and 11-4 on second-chance points at halftime. Robinson had 16 of his 30 points as he accounted for six of the eight Ozarks field goals.
 
Ozarks rallied to score 22 of the first 30 points of the second half to cut the deficit to one, 63-62, with 5:19 to play on a Robertson layup. Nine of the 22 came from the tandem of Robertson and Richardson. Clinging to a one-point lead, the YellowJackets scored the final 12 points of the game en route to a 75-62 win over the visiting Eagles. Six of the 13 came from Thompson – four of which came on dunks for the League City, Texas native.
 
The YellowJackets will take its two-game winning streak into the Christmas Break before returning to action in the UT Tyler Christmas Classic on December 30-31. First, they will face Southwestern on December 30 at 2:30 p.m., followed by a contest against Schreiner on December 31 at noon.