BROWNWOOD, Texas - The Howard Payne University men's basketball team fell 91-83 to Concordia University at the Brownwood Coliseum on Saturday evening.
Howard Payne (11-7, 7-3 ASC) was whistled for 26 fouls, the most in a game all season, while picking up just 15 fouls shots of their own all game. Concordia (12-6, 6-3 ASC) also scored 32 points off of turnovers and had 20 second-chance points to help lead themselves to the victory.
Khyce Randall continued his hot-shooting ways, finishing with a game-high 20 points while also collecting five assists, five rebounds, and four steals. J Bailey finished with 12 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three blocks and Donovan Jenkins finished with a double-double, 10 points and 10 rebounds in the loss.
The Yellow Jackets raced out to a 20-14 lead with just under ten minutes remaining in the first half before the Tornados made a push to regain control of the lead. After Philip Meikle sunk a shot from distance, Concordia had pulled ahead by two points, 25-23.
The Tornados went on to lead by as much as ten points and took a 48-38 lead into halftime after receiving a late three-pointer from Joshua Samuels. Howard Payne committed 18 turnovers in the half compared to Concordia's nine turnovers but held the Tornados to just 18% shooting from distance.
The Yellow Jackets came out of the half fired up and proceeded to knock down their first four jumpers before a Khyce Randall three with 17 minutes left gave Howard Payne a two point lead, 50-48. Randall went on to score the game's next five points, all unanswered, and after he found Donovan Jenkins in the paint for a quick layup, the Jackets climbed to an 11 point lead.
It was at this point when Concordia was able to create contact and get to the foul line. Almost single-handedly beating Howard Payne from the free throw as they sunk five straight points from the free-throw line to cut the lead down to 67-63 with 10:30 left in the game.
The two sides exchanged leads for next couple of minutes until a Rickey Guillory three put Howard Payne back up by two, with 5:09 remaining. This is when Concordia settled down, got to the free-throw line and finished out the game with the 91-83 victory.
The Yellow Jackets will next be in action on January 28th when they play host to Sul Ross State University at 3:00 PM inside the Brownwood Coliseum. Tickets are available at the door and for those unable to attend, live video and stats will be made available at HPUSports.com. Be sure to follow along on Twitter @HPUmbsk and also on Instagram @HPUSports for in-game updates, interactive content and more.
