SHERMAN, Texas – Austin College held off a late Howard Payne rally in a 72-64 Yellow Jacket loss on day two of the Bob Mason Classic in Hughey Gym.

A three pointer to put Austin College on top 10-4 with just over 14 minutes left in the opening half. ,The 'Roos pushed the margin to 24-11 with 7:54 left before the break.

AC's lead grew to 14 on a three pointer to make it 30-16 with 6:10 left. The Jackets answered and cut it to a nine point game with five unanswered. Seven straight points pushed the 'Roo lead to 37-24 with 2:46 on the clock. Howard Payne would cut the margin to 39-28 heading into halftime.

To start the second half, Austin College quickly pushed the lead to 20, 63-43 with 11:32 remaining in the game. From there the Jackets would hold the 'Roos scoreless for nearly seven minutes, the 11-0 run by Howard Payne made it 64-54 with 4:44 to play.

Howard Payne would pull within four at 66-62 on a pair of Jorden Young free throws to cap off the 19-3 scoring run by the Jackets. However, Austin College hit a three pointer with 50 seconds remaining to make it 69-62, and free throws would ice the game for Austin College.

Howard Payne held a 48-40 edge on the glass and pulled down 21 offensive boards as a team.

Brandon Gould scored 16 points and grabbed five rebounds to pace the Jackets. Curtis Gile had 12 points and a game-high 16 rebounds. J Bailey had 11 points and seven rebounds off the bench.

Cedric Hudson finished with 20 points and Alan Sullivan finished with 13 points.

The Jackets held to just 30.8% shooting overall and 15.4% from long range, while Austin College made 44.3% of its field goal attempts.

Howard Payne is now 0-2 on the year, Austin College stands at 2-0 overall. The Yellow Jackets will be back in action on Sunday, November 30th at NCAA D-I Texas State University in San Marcos starting 4:00 pm.
,