BEAUMONT, Texas – The Howard Payne University men's basketball team was very competitive in a 97-74 loss to D-I Lamar University Tuesday evening at the Montagne Center.

Despite outrebounding Lamar 42-38 Howard Payne committed 21 turnovers and was held to 39% shooting in the second half leading to a 97-74 Lamar final.

Lamar led 9-0 to start the game before a Cam Frank layup with 16:05 remaining made it 9-2. Lamar pushed its lead to 24-9 midway through the half with the Jackets rallying from that point to get back in the game.

The Jackets outscored the Cardinals 22-10 to pull within three, 34-31 on a Rickey Guillory layup with 4:43 left in the half. A four point game with under two minutes left, Lamar made a slight push to lead 45-36 at the break.

Lamar extended its lead back to 20, 64-44 six minutes into to second half. It would stay about the same the remainder of the game to the 97-74 final.

Rickey Guillory led Howard Payne with 18 points and seven rebounds. Bryan Adams followed with 16 points along with five boards. DJ Gardner had five assists off the bench and Volney Willis dished out four assists.

Lamar was led by Dorian Chatman with a game high 23 points. Dontavious Sears had 12 and LeMon Gregory and Kevin Booze each had 11.

Howard Payne is now 2-9 overall on the year. Lamar stands at 8-4 overall. The Jackets will play next on January 2nd at the University of Texas at Dallas. It will be a 3:00 pm start time.

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