ABILENE, Texas -- Leading 51-50 with 12:10 left in the second half, the LeTourneau men's basketball team looked to close the door and open conference play with a win but Hardin-Simmons had other ideas.
Finishing the game on a 25-13 run the hometown Cowboys handed the YellowJackets the loss, 76-64, to open ASC play on Thursday night inside the Mabee Complex.
Deonte Jackson stayed hot from the field dropping 25 points. Jackson has scored 20-plus points in all six regular season games this year.
Walker Blaine would add 10 points of his own and
Warren Richardson added a double-double to the mix with 11 points and 16 rebounds. LeTourneau dominated the boards with 44 rebounds and limited the opposing Cowboys to only 31 rebounds.
LeTourneau (3-3) stepped on the gas early going on a 9-2 run with 5:06 left in the first half capped off by a Blaine dunk to stretch the lead to nine at 27-18. The YellowJackets would go into the half with a 34-29 lead and look to capitalize and shut the door.
With 13:24 remaining in the second half, LeTourneau would gain a five-point advantage (49-44) with a Blaine 3-pointer. The opposing Cowboys responded with a layup and two free throws to cut the deficit to one 49-48, Jackson would extend the lead to three with a layup 51-48, the final lead for the YellowJackets.
Trailing by six points with 7:58 remaining the YellowJackets would cut the lead to two with a Richardson dunk and a
Caedmon Liebengood layup 57-55, the Cowboys felt no threat as they finished the game on a 19-9 run. LeTourneau's final points would come from a Richardson layup with 1:49 remaining in the game.
Hardin-Simmons (3-3) was led by Steven Quinn who had 31 points, Will Bartoszek who contributed 14 points and Austin Brewer and Jordyn Vicente who added 10 points each.
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LeTourneau stays in Abilene to take on McMurry on Saturday (3 p.m.).
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