LONGVIEW, Texas – A 13-point halftime lead would be barely enough to hang on as the LeTourneau University men's basketball team survived a scare from American Southwest Conference member Louisiana College by a final score of 78-77 at Solheim Arena on Saturday, January 20th.
 
LETU picks up win 14 of the year to improve to 14-3 overall and 8-2 in the ASC while LC falls to 3-11 and 1-8 in the ASC with the loss.
 
"That was a hard fought game and to Louisiana College's credit they played extremely hard and good tonight" said head coach Dan Miller in post-game interview. We have to learn from this game as we played too loose and complacent in the second half." "If we want to accomplish our goals, we need to be locked in for 40 minutes and value the basketball better." "I can't wait to get to our next practice and work on things, but I am proud of the fight and togetherness in this team and know we will get it fixed."
 
On a day where senior guard Alex Colhoff would score his 1,000th career point, LeTourneau would be held to a 42.9 percent (27-of-63) shooting percentage just one game after setting an ASC record for field goal percentage in a game. Louisiana College finished the game at 51.7 percent (31-for-60) and hit seven of 15 threes (46.7 percent), but would be plagued by an 8-of-15 performance (53.3 percent) at the charity stripe. The 78 points would be the second-lowest scoring total that LeTourneau has posted all year, with the YellowJackets scoring a season-low 77 against Centenary College on November 25th.
 
Colhoff's 1,000th point would come with 7:09 left in the first half as the Katy, Texas native finished with 11 points to go along with five rebounds. Sophomore Nate West eclipsed his career-high set one week ago by finishing with 29 points and hitting five-of-six free throws, and also assisted on five buckets and had four steals. Junior Caleb Loggins led LETU defensively by recording two steals and one block to go along with seven rebounds and 10 points. Louisiana College was led by a team-high 20 points from Lashard Powell, with 15 of the 20 coming in the second half.
 
It wouldn't take long for LeTourneau to race out to a double-digit lead, opening the game on a 13-2 run which forced an LC timeout with just 4:13 into the game. A once 13-point lead for the YellowJackets would be cut to seven on a Devon Washington layup with 11:04 remaining in the first half as the Wildcats wouldn't let LETU extend their lead to any more than 13 in the half.
 
LeTourneau managed to extend their lead back to double-digits at 30-19 with 7:09 remaining in the period, but once again Louisiana College would come storming back by scoring two transition jumpers in the span of 14 seconds as LETU was forced into a 2:54 scoring drought that cut the lead to seven. The YellowJackets would close the half out by outscoring LC 11-5 to take a 41-28 lead at intermission.
 
Following a three by senior Caylab Herrera to open up the second half, Louisiana College quickly showed that their record was not indicative of their fight and desire as the LeTourneau lead would be cut to single-digits for the final 13:42 of the game. Despite multiple efforts to keep the Wildcats at arm's length heading into the back end of the second half, Louisiana College would use a 6-0 run over a 54 second span to get within four at 56-52 with 12:48 remaining and tie the game at 58-58 with 9:59 left in the second half.
 
West would answer the call from LC with a three to put LETU back up by a score of 61-58 with 8:23 remaining, but once again Louisiana College would tie the game with this occasion coming on an old-fashioned three-point play. It would appear that LeTourneau finally found a formula to pull away from LC following another West three with 2:41 left in the game to go up 76-67, but the Wildcats had other plans as five-straight points cut the lead back down to four with 92 seconds remaining. West would score the final two points for LeTourneau with 1:28 remaining following a foul by Jaquez Coleman before seeing a layup and three pointer fall as time expired with the game already decided for the Wildcats.
 
Eight more opportunities remain for the LeTourneau men's basketball team as the front end of ASC East Divisional play wraps up next weekend. The YellowJackets will host Univeristy of the Ozarks on January 25th with tip-off slated for 7:30 p.m.