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LONGVIEW, Texas - The LeTourneau University men's basketball team will put their 22-3 overall record on the line on Thursday, February 22nd in the quarterfinal round of the 2018 American Southwest Conference Men's Basketball Tournament hosted by Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas against the YellowJackets of Howard Payne University.
Winners of 10 straight games, LETU is fresh off a 107-100 overtime victory at the University of Texas-Dallas to clinch the American Southwest Conference East Division Title outright for the second consecutive season. The East Division Title is the second in school history, with the 22nd win of the year matching last season's school-record setting team that went 22-6 overall and advanced to last year's ASC Men's Basketball Tournament Championship game.
LeTourneau will play in the second game of the day in quarterfinal action, with East Texas Baptist University and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor opening up the tournament at 12 p.m. on Thursday. Other quarterfinal action on Thursday evening will pit east division No. 2 seed Texas-Dallas against No. 3 seed out of the west Concordia Texas at 5 p.m. while host Sul Ross State will take on Texas-Tyler in the nightcap at 7:30 p.m.
The four teams that advance to Friday's semifinal round will play at either 5 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. with winners of games one and two playing at 5 p.m. on Friday with winners of games three and four playing at 7:30 p.m. Saturday's ASC Men's Basketball Tournament Championship game will tip-off at 6 p.m. with the winner earning an automatic berth into the 2018 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship.
In their only meeting this year, LeTourneau came away with a 98-63 win over HPU in Brownwood, Texas in their final game before the Christmas holiday break. LETU sophomore
Nate West recorded just the second triple-double in school history and 12th in ASC men's basketball history by finishing with 23 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists as the YellowJackets built a 44-29 halftime lead and cruised to their second-largest margin of victory this year. In their last five meetings against Howard Payne, LeTourneau is just 2-3 against the YellowJackets with the two teams splitting the last four meetings.
Howard Payne will enter Thursday's game with an 11-14 overall record after qualifying for the ASC Tournament on a last-second buzzer beater to knock off UMHB by a final of 76-74 in Brownwood. Senior guard Khyce Randall leads the ASC in scoring, averaging 25.2 points per game and has led Howard Payne in scoring all but two games this season. HPU has also won their last three games, and has gone 9-9 since their loss to LETU on December 11th.
