BROWNWOOD, Texas – Howard Payne rallied from an early 15-point deficit to defeat the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor 69-63 Thursday night in the Brownwood Conference.,

Mary Hardin-Baylor came out red-hot to start the game, jumping out to a 23-8 lead with 10:43 left in the first half. Howard Payne started to chip away and pulled to within 30-28 at halftime on a deep three-point bucket by Ty Davis.

The Yellow Jackets took their first lead of the game at 31-30 in the opening seconds of the second half. UMHB fought back for a 52-45 lead with 9:56 remaining. Howard Payne scored the next eight points to retake the lead and never let UMHB get closer than five points in the final four minutes of the game.

The Jackets held UMHB to just 7 of 23 shooting from three-point range. Howard Payne outrebounded UMHB 43-39 and forced 22 UMHB turnovers in the game.

Brandon Gould led a balanced HPU scoring effort with 15 points. Jordan Young chipped in 13 points and Ty Davis had 12. Sterling Smoak pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds in the contest. The Yellow Jackets shot 39 per cent from the field but hit 7 of 15 from beyond the arc in the victory.

Jerard Graham,led UMHB with 23 points and 10 rebounds.,Justin Gammill,added 18 points and six boards and,Jalen Jury,also reached double figures with 10 points.,

Howard Payne improves to 1-3 overall and 1-0 in the ASC on the year with the victory.The loss drops the UMHB men to 2-3 overall and 0-1 in ASC play. The Yellow Jackets will take on conference opponent Concordia University Texas Saturday at 3:00 pm.