BROWNWOOD, Texas – The Howard Payne University men's basketball team defeated the University of Texas at Tyler, 80-73 Saturday evening at the Brownwood Coliseum. 

The two sides exchanged baskets during the first half until Howard Payne started to pull away after back-to-back buckets from Rickey Guillory to finish the half up ten points. The Yellow Jackets (3-3) would extend that lead to 19 in the second half before escaping with their second straight ASC victory over the Patriots (4-3.) 

Rickey Guillory finished with a career high and game best 27 points on 10-15 shooting and had a key block to help lead Howard Payne to the victory. Khyce Randall and De'Marcus Hurd each finished with 15 points and the Jackets finished the night shooting 50% from the field and 48% from range. 

For the first six minutes, no team would lead by more than four points and the score was tied up at 12-12 with 13:35 left to go in the half. Howard Payne built a five point lead after a Shadd Cole three pointer and a Khyce Randall jumper and the two sides exchanged leads the rest of the half until Rickey Guillory broke off a dunk and followed that with a three pointer to give the Yellow Jackets the 45-37 lead at half time. 

Khyce Randall went 2-2 from three and scored 11 of his 14 points in the final half to help Howard Payne come out of half time and take the over the ball game. The Yellow Jackets led by 17 points with 12:46 left to go in the game.  

Donovan Jenkins grabbed a rebound in the paint and put it back up to give the Yellow Jackets a 69-50 lead before UT-Tyler made their comeback. Davis Moore went 3-3 from beyond the arc and helped pull the Patriots to within four points of the lead, 74-70 with just over one minute left in the game. 

Howard Payne settled down from there though and initiated contact, drew fouls and made eight straight free throws down the line to clinch the 80-73 victory.  

The Jackets shot 50% from the field and 48% from range while forcing 19 turnovers that led to 30 points and helped them clinch an 80-73 victory and a two game winning streak to start 2016-17 ASC play. 

The Jackets will now head back out on the road to face East Texas Baptist (4-2) on Saturday, December 10th at 3:00 pm. Live stats and video will be available on HPUSports.com and keep up with the Yellow Jackets on Twitter and Instagram by following @HPUSports