A shuffled starting lineup and a complete team performance led the LeTourneau University men's basketball team to an 85-73 win over Howard Payne on Saturday in Longview.
 
LETU second-year head coach Dan Miller used a new starting lineup – Christian Seidl, Caleb Loggins, C.J. Edwards, Alec Colhoff and Jeff Martin – which accounted for 62 of the 85 points in the win. Seidl, who had scored six points in the first six games, answered to the new role with a 15-point effort, including three 3-pointers in the win; plus, he also shared in team-high honors with six rebounds. Seidl was joined in double figures by Edwards, who scored a career-high and game-high 21 points on the strength of five 3-pointers. Junior Jeff Martin had a double double with 18 points and 11 assists. He is the seventh player in the ASC in 2015-16 to record double-digit assists in a game. Also in the win for LETU reserves, sophomore Sam Talbert and senior Giovanny Thompson had nine and seven points, respectively. With the win, LETU improves to 2-5 overall and 1-1 in the American Southwest Conference.
 
The loss drops Howard Payne to 0-7 overall and 0-2 in the ASC. HPU was led by Khyce Randall, who had 19 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. He was joined in double figures by Rickey Guillory, who added 14 points.
 
LeTourneau started the game with a 3 pointer by Edwards and LETU remained in front for the rest of the contest. On a pair of occasions, the visitors would get as close as one on a pair of occasions in the first 20 minutes. LETU withstood the threat with a 12-1 run later in the half. Then, Howard Payne closed out the first half with seven unanswered points to cut the LeTourneau lead to 35-33 at the halftime break. In the first half, LeTourneau held HPU to 31% (9-for-29) shooting.
 
The LETU lead remained single digits until an 8-2 spurt, late in the second half pushed the advantage up to double figures for the rest of the contest on a 3-point play by Seidl with 5:35 to play. It was a strong second half for LeTourneau, who scored a season-high 50 points as well as they shot 48.1% (13-for-27) from the field. The eight 3-pointers were also a season-high and the only other higher percentage in the final 20 minutes came in the other LETU win against Millsaps.
 
The contest also marked the final game for LETU senior Jake Kennedy, who will graduate with his bachelor's degree in business administration next Saturday. Kennedy played in 52 games over the last three-plus seasons where he played in nearly 1,000 minutes with 76 assists and 23 steals to his credit. In addition, he has been a two-time member of the ASC All-Academic Team.
 
Next, LeTourneau will travel to Abilene, Texas to face McMurry on Dec. 10 at 9 p.m. and Hardin-Simmons on Dec. 12 at 7:30 p.m.