LONGVIEW – LeTourneau University men's basketball team ran into a buzz saw Thursday night, falling for the first time in the past four games at Solheim Arena. The YellowJackets fell to the University of Texas at Dallas, 102-89.
 
UTD (5-2, 3-2 American Southwest Conference) shot 58 percent, going 21 of 33 in the second half in a game the two teams swapped leads 11 times and drew even on eight other occasions. But LETU (5-2, 3-2) found itself in catch-up mode the entire second half. The Jackets shot 50 percent in the second half, but the Comets torched the nets for a 63.6 percent clip.
 
LeTourneau's Deonte Jackson scored 27 points on 11 of 22 shooting, and Andrew Eberhardt had 20 points and five assists, while going 6 of 11 from three-point range. John Argue had 12 points, eight rebounds and a block as the Jackets shot 48 percent. Jackson was 5 of 9 from downtown.
 
UTD's Dimitrius Underwood had 30 points, nine assists, nine rebounds and four steals, and Michael Forster scored 25 points.
 
LETU took a 26-23 lead midway through the first half when Eberhardt knocked down a 3-pointer. Isaac Will put the Comets up three when he threw down a dunk at the 8:57 mark. Argue tied the game on the next trip down the floor when he canned a triple. Isaac Stolzenburg and Jackson scored in transition on back-to-back possessions as the YellowJackets regained control, 33-32. But UT Dallas went on a 15-2 run to take a nine-point lead into halftime.
 
The Jackets were 8 of 18 from long range in the first half. The Comets shot 22 of 41 from the floor.
 
LeTourneau trimmed an 11-point second half lead down to five when Eberhardt hit a 3. UT Dallas bumped its lead out to 12, but LETU responded when Jackson, Jordan Pride and Eberhardt hit successive threes to cut it to five again. The Comets stretched their lead out to 11 before Warren Richardson connected on one of the Jackets' 16 triples with 9:40 to play to cut the gap to seven. But UTD built its lead back to double digits, and LETU couldn't recover.
 
Pride finished with eight points, six assists, four rebounds and a steal. Kyle Matthews had eight points and five boards. Stolzenburg had seven points.
 
The YellowJackets were outrebounded, 43-29.
 
LETU hosts Ozarks 3 p.m. Saturday.