LONGVIEW, Texas – Returning home to the friendly confines of Solheim Arena, the LeTourneau University men's basketball team won the final battle of East Texas rivals with a 92-72 win over Texas-Tyler at Solheim Arena on Thursday, January 31st.
 
Back-to-back victories against the Patriots brings the YellowJackets to 13-7 overall while Texas-Tyler falls to 8-13. The game is considered a non-conference game and does not affect American Southwest Conference records as Texas-Tyler is in the first year of NCAA Division II Reclassifying.  
 
"I was proud of the guys for focusing on the scout plan and getting off to a pretty good start once we got past the first four minutes of the game" said head coach Dan Miller in a post-game interview. "It took all 40 minutes tonight, but I'm proud the guys as I thought we rebounded well and executed with some assisted baskets in key moments." "We definitely got a big step-up game from a lot of guys off the bench and the depth of our bench is eventually going to become a key once we get to the ASC Tournament."
 
How It Happened:

• It would be the Patriots who would come out and be the aggressors in the opening minutes and grab a 9-3 lead over the YellowJackets before an Elijah Gerber triple would cut the lead in half and pull LeTourneau within a single-possession.
• After another Texas-Tyler bucket, LETU would score 13 of the next 15 points and grab their first lead of the game at 19-13 with 13:20 left in the first half.
•  UTT would be quick to respond with four straight points from Darius Alford but would see senior Seth Mattson for LeTourneau connect on a three to push the lead back out to five.
• The Patriots would continue to battle their way back to just a two-point deficit at 24-22, and eventually tie things up at 26-26 with 6:46 left until halftime.
• A 15-2 run by the YellowJackets would be capped off by a Caleb Loggins jumper with 2:53 left in the first half, as LeTourneau would close out the half by outscoring UTT 18-8 and take a 44-34 lead into intermission.
• A Nate West three and Gerber layup to open the second half allowed the YellowJackets to open a 49-34 lead and force a quick Texas-Tyler timeout, but it would be the Patriots who would storm back by scoring seven straight points to pull within eight at 49-41.
• LeTourneau would manage to keep their lead around 10 points before seeing Texas-Tyler manage to get within as little as five at 59-54 before a 7-2 LETU run pushed the lead back to 10 at 66-56.
• The final 10 minutes of action would see the YellowJackets maintain their double-digit lead for the duration of the contest and go up by as many as 20 at 84-64 with 5:26 left which allowed for LETU to earn their eighth double-digit victory of the season.

Key Stats:

• Mattson scored a team-high 21 points while Loggins led the YellowJackets in rebounds (7), assists (9) and blocks (3).
• With the help of a 50 percent (18-of-36) shooting performance in the first half, LETU finished the contest shooting 49.3 percent (36-for-73) from the field while the Patriots managed to shoot 52.3 percent (34-for-65) percent from the field.
• LETU managed to hold a slight rebound advantage in the game, grabbing 14 offensive boards as part of their 32-rebound total while holding Texas-Tyler to just 27 rebounds in the game.
   

What's Next?
LETU will return to conference action as they face the University of the Ozarks in a 3 p.m. matchup on Saturday, February 2nd. LETU will look to avenge last week's road loss to the Eagles, who fell in overtime at East Texas Baptist University on Thursday evening.