Abram Choate, SID

BELTON, Texas – The Concordia Texas men's basketball team broke open a close game with a decisive second-half run and the Tornados went on to a 105-92 victory over Howard Payne University in an American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament semifinal Saturday afternoon in Belton.

The Tornados improve to 19-8 overall on the season with the win and advance to the ASC Championship game for the first time in school history. Concordia will face tournament host Mary Hardin-Baylor in the championship game at 2:00 PM on Sunday with the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Championships on the line.

The loss ends Howard Payne's season with a 14-13 overall record.

Concordia opened the game with a 12-0 run and quickly led by 14 points at 18-4 with 16:21 remaining in the first half. HPU stormed back and took a 19-18 lead with 12:21 remaining. CTX would push the lead back to five points before settling for a 46-44 halftime lead. It was a 54-53 game with 15:49 left before the Tornados used a 32-14 run to push the lead to 19 points and Concordia never looked back.

Valentino Maxwell came off the bench to lead Concordia with 33 points. Brad Walker had 15 points and nine rebounds and Michael Moore also had 15 points for the Tornados. Joel McDonald also reached double figures with 11 points for CTX.

Tom Hermann topped the Yellow Jackets with a game-high 34 points and Lee Scott added 20. Chris Cornwell had a double-double with 13 points and a game-high 11 rebounds for Howard Payne.

The Yellow Jackets shot 47 per cent from the field, but turned the ball over 24 times and shot just 26 per cent from three-point range. The Tornados hit 43 per cent from the field and 40 per cent from beyond the arc.