Three's carry Texas Lutheran past Crusaders Sunday
IRVING, Texas – A strong first half shooting performance was not enough for the University of Dallas men's basketball team (5-7, 0-3 SCAC) on Sunday. Dallas dropped a 77-70 decision to Texas Lutheran University (7-6, 1-1 SCAC) to cap a 2-2 home stand. Despite leading 41-34 and a 60 percent field goal shooting result, the Crusaders would be outscored 43-29, with the help of 6-for-10 shooting behind the arc. TLU's Matt Perry had a perfect day going 6-for-6 from the field and all being three's.
STAT NOTABLES
(Individual Notes)
- Darrius Colvin (Waco, Texas) paced quartet of UD starters in double-digits with 15 points. Tom Kaiser (Nashville Tenn.) had 14, Lorenzo Gonzalez (San Antonio, Texas) had 12, and Prince Giadolor (Rockwall, Texas) had 11.
- Colvin produced his 3rd straight double figure performance on the home stint and 10th on the campaign. His 3-for-5 shooting from three-point land matches a season-high with the opener at Hendrix College. He also blocked four shots for a career-best.
- Giadolor notched his 7th straight performance with double-digit point totals. Gonzalez matched a season-high with his 4th double-digit performance.
- Gonzalez and Giadolor combined for seven of the team's 16 assists with four and three, respectively.
- Kaiser garnered a team-high seven rebounds.
- Texas Lutheran was led by Perry with a game-high 18 points. All points came from six made three-pointers. Sterling Holmes and Harris Jowell each added 12 points. Zach Behr pulled down eight rebounds and Jowell followed with seven.
(Team Notes)
- Dallas shot 54.7 percent from the field. This is the 2nd straight contest the Crusaders have made 29 field goals. A 7-for-13 (53.8%) performance marked a season-best in three-point field goal percentage.
- There was a large disparity on the free throw attempts with TLU going 14-for-23 compared to five-for-eight by the Navy and White.
- Texas Lutheran did shoot 49 percent from the floor and 56.3 percent (13-23) from downtown.
- It was the Crusaders getting the benefit in the paint with 36-18 difference in points down there.
- The Bulldogs slightly bettered UD in rebounds 29-28 and assists 17-16. Steals were also a one-number difference with TLU swiping nine. The UD total on the boards was a season-low.
- The Crusaders committed 18 turnovers compared to 15 by TLU. Points off the miscues was 17-13, and the Black and Gold enjoyed nine fastbreak points to UD's four.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Sarrat nailed a three-pointer on the Crusaders' first possession and then Colvin swished the first of his three trifectas in the half to begin a 6-0 advantage in two minutes of play. Behr got the Bulldogs on the scoreboard with a two at 17:40. Kaiser and Colvin went back-to-back on field goals. Prior to Colvin's layup that made it 10-2, he started the sequence on defense with a big block that led to an eventual steal by Gonzalez. A Kaiser layup followed Jordan Kouremetis' jump shot to keep the margin at eight.
About five and a half minutes into the game, TLU struck with its first run on five points from Matthew Gillette and Ray Blake on a jumper and three-pointer, respectively. Another triple by Alex Cage cut things at 16-12 and 12:16 left. Cage added a free throw following a Holmes' trey that narrowed the gap at 18-17 and just under the midway juncture.
The Crusaders responded with Victory Garate (Austin, Texas) making his lone field goal of the contest from three and then Emmanuel Calton (Keller, Texas) and Gonzalez had layups to extend the lead back to eight (25-17). Colvin's three-pointer made it a double-digit advantage (28-17) again with 6:35 remaining. That would be the largest lead of the game for the Navy and White. After duplicating that margin at 30-19 with a jumper by Giadolor, the Bulldogs scrapped back throughout the last five minutes. Kaiser's layup after an offensive rebound with the clock expiring put UD ahead 41-34 at intermission.
This was the second straight 41-point half that the Crusaders displayed, having scored that amount in the second stanza on Friday against Southwestern University. This was the most points against a league foe that Dallas had by halftime in three contests.
At the start of the second half Gonzalez tallied the first five Dallas points, including a three-pointer that pushed a 46-37 lead early. Ray immediately struck a trey before two minutes had nearly past, and Holmes cut the deficit to 46-42 on a pair of free throws. The home team finally made it to the line for the first attempts all game in the second half and 17:20 remaining. Rory MacCallum (Boulder, Colo.) had the two looks and made both. Jowell completed a tip in on an offensive rebound and then his pair of free throws made it a two-point deficit. Gonzalez scored his second trey of the game to make it 51-46 and 16:21 remaining. the point guard had nine-of-11 points for the Crusaders to start the frame.
After a Holmes three cut it back to two, Dallas rattled off seven unanswered that included a Gonzalez layup, an old-fashioned three-point play from Giadolor, and a Colvin layup. Texas Lutheran countered the momentum down nine on an 11-0 run that featured all of Perry's three-pointers in the half. His first made it a six-point game, and then after a Cage two, he got consecutive trifectas with a UD turnover in between. This gave the Bulldogs their first advantage all game 60-58.
The Crusaders never recovered and trailed the remainder. That 11 straight surge extended to 13 before Kaiser stopped the outburst with a layup. Six more unanswered points gave TLU a 68-60 lead. Dallas got within five on a pair of occasions thanks to Sarrat field goals, but a three-pointer by Kouremetis as the shot clock expired with 1:53 was the last heave needed to hold the momentum.
UP NEXT
Dallas is on the road for two conference games next starting with Austin College on January 13. Tip-off is slated for approximately 8 p.m. after the women's basketball contest.