NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Squaring off against their second NCAA Division I school in an exhibition in less than a week, the LeTourneau University men's basketball team would pull within seven points of Stephen F. Austin early on in the second half before falling to the Lumberjacks by a score of 91-68 at the WRJ Coliseum in Nacogdoches, Texas on Thursday, November 16th. 

The game does count towards the overall record of Stephen F. Austin, who improves to 3-0 overall while the YellowJackets remain at 1-0 in the regular season and conclude their exhibition schedule against Southland Conference opponents with a 1-1 record. 

Long-range shooting would be seen by both squads early on with senior Caylab Hererra getting LETU on the board with a triple before a 7-0 run by the Jacks up 7-3 in the opening minutes. Senior Alec Colhoff would cut the SFA lead to one with a three as LeTourneau would not allow Stephen F. Austin to open up a lead of more than 11 in the opening 10 minutes of the game. 

Trailing by a score of 26-13 following a layup by Jovan Grujic, sophomore Nate West would hit LeTourneau's third three of the first half to pull back within 10 and keep the YellowJackets within striking distance. SFA's largest lead of the first half came on a layup by TJ Holyfield to put the Lumberjacks up 33-18 with 8:24 remaining in the first half before LETU would fight back to cut the lead to single digits on a Justin Moore jumper in the final two minutes of the half. Stephen F. Austin would tally the final five points of the half to lead by a score of 48-34 at intermission. 

Five straight points by LETU to open the second half would quickly bring the deficit back down to nine just 93 seconds into the second half as LeTourneau would keep up their three-point shooting efficiency. A 9-2 run by SFA pushed the lead back out to 57-41 with 15:52 remaining in the game before a second rally by the YellowJackets brought LETU within seven at 57-50 following a Seth Mattson three. 

SFA would get back to what worked for them in the first half by utilizing their size advantage over LeTourneau, slowly building their lead up to 20 on a layup by John Comeaux following an LETU turnover with 8:03 remaining in the game as the Lumberjacks would start to pull away. The YellowJackets would find themselves trailing by as many as 28 points late in the second half before a late flurry of points by senior guard Justin Eadeh made the final tally 91-68 in favor of Stephen F. Austin. 

"Stephen F. Austin presents a lot of challenges because of their excellent pressure defense" said head coach Dan Miller in a post-game interview. "We did a good job in spots at handling it but also had some lapses." "I thought our guys battled hard on defense and I was proud of the way we started the second half to get within 57-50 and in the game." "However we were bad from the free throw line and had some not so solid possessions that led to turnovers." "It was a great learning experience for our team and everybody played in the game and gained valuable experience tonight." 

SFA would shoot an efficient 58.1 percent (36-62) from the floor and hit three triples in each half while the YellowJackets were limited to 46 percent (23-50) shooting from the field while going nine of 20 from beyond the arc (45 percent). Points off turnovers ended up being a 31-17 advantage in favor of the Lumberjacks, who also scored 56 points in the paint. 

Four players for LETU would wind up in double-figures led by a team-high 13 points by West who would add two assists. Moore had 12 followed by 11 from Mattson and 10 from Colhoff while Caleb Loggins and Colhoff led the YellowJackets with four rebounds each. SFA got a game-high 26 points from Kevon Harris, who also had eight rebounds, two steals and one block. 

LeTourneau will return to regular-season action this weekend, taking part in the Rhodes College Tip-Off Classic sponsored by Four Points by Sheraton. The YellowJackets take on Johns Hopkins at 1 p.m. and Saturday and will play either Vassar College or Rhodes on Sunday afternoon.