LONGVIEW, Texas – Scoring the first eight points of the game, the LeTourneau University men's basketball team would jump all over visiting Howard Payne University by a halftime score of 55-32 en route to picking up a 99-60 victory at Solheim Arena on Saturday, December 8th.
 
LETU has now won three straight games to improve to 6-4 overall and 3-1 in American Southwest Conference play while HPU falls to 2-7 overall and 1-1 in ASC action.
 
"I was very proud of the guys for how they focused coming into this last American Southwest Conference game before the holiday break" said head coach Dan Miller in a post-game interview. "The last three games we saw our ball movement really pick up and it's exciting to see contributions coming from a lot of different guys as we continue to get players to step up and keep improving." "We will continue to stay humble, hungry, and together as we know that ASC play is a grind that lasts through the last week of February."
 
How It Happened:

• A jumper from senior Caleb Loggins along with back-to-back transition triples from Nate West would put LeTourneau up 8-0 just 77 seconds into the game as HPU would have no response to LeTourneau hitting their first three shots of the game.
• West would continue his rampant pace to start the game by hitting a pair of free throws to give LETU a double-digit lead at 12-2 with 16:56 remaining in the first half before seeing the lead grow to 16 at 24-8 on Christian Seidl three that would force Howard Payne to take a timeout.
• The LeTourneau run would continue out of the break as nine straight points would put LETU up 33-8 with 8:58 left before halftime with Elijah Gerber knocking down a jumper in the paint.
• Seth Mattson would get in on the scoring effort for LeTourneau with 4:40 remaining before halftime by knocking down a three as LETU would connect on eight treys in the first half to lead by 32 at intermission and looking to put the game away early in the second half.
• Back-to-back treys for LETU started the second half as Justin Moore and Kyle Matthews ignited a 10-2 run which would put LeTourneau up 65-25 with 17:27 remaining in the game.
• Things would continue to go LeTourneau's way throughout the second half, with Loggins getting a transition layup from West to give LETU their largest lead of the game at 77-32 with 13:57 left in the contest.
• Hitting the 88-point mark with 6:21 remaining, LETU would look to hit the century mark for second time this season before letting off the gas to end the game as a Garrett Beene triple with 50 ticks left on the clock ended the scoring with LeTourneau just a single-point shy of 100 while matching their largest margin-of-victory this season.

 
Key Stats:

• The balanced LETU effort would come as no player would log more than 27 minutes in the contest with 14 players combining for the 99-point output.
• Finishing with a 50.6 percent (40-of-79) shooting percentage from the field, LeTourneau hit 13-of-34 (38.2 percent) of their three's while scoring 46 points in the paint and 17 second-chance points.
• Doing most of his scoring in the first half, West would net a game-high 18 points after scoring 15 in the first half while falling just one assist shy of a double-double (9).

 
What's Next?
LeTourneau's next regular-season game will come on Saturday, December 29th when the YellowJackets close out non-conference play with a 3 p.m. home game against Millsaps University. LETU will play an exhibition game against Louisiana State University-Shreveport next Saturday, December 15th at the Gold Dome on the campus of Centenary College at 3:30 p.m. as part of the Shreveport Classic.