BROWNWOOD, Texas - The Howard Payne men's university basketball team fell, 89-75 to Hardin-Simmons University during Senior Day at the Brownwood Coliseum on Saturday evening.

Khyce Randall led the Yellow Jackets with 20 points and senior J Bailey added 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists in the loss. De'Marcus Hurd finished with 13 points and senior Donovan Jenkins had eight points and nine rebounds.

Howard Payne (12-9, 8-5 ASC) started the game a little sloppy as Hardin-Simmons raced out to a 7-2 lead in the first minutes. The Yellow Jackets didn't get on the board until a Donovan Jenkins steal and fast break got the scoring going for Howard Payne in the third minute.  But the Cowboy's (16-6,10-3 ASC)  got hot from outside and went on to take a 20-4 lead with 14 minutes left in the half.

After a timeout, the Yellow Jackets took to the floor and reduced the deficit to 10, 20-10 after Khyce Randall buried a bucket from distance and De'Marcus Hurd followed it up with a three of his own. But the Hardin-Simmons offense kept ticking, pulling ahead by as much as 15, 30-15 with 6:30 left in the half. 

Howard Payne fought back to close the half, reducing the deficit to 30-24 after a Rickey Guillory three-pointer from the top of the key. The Cowboys would go on to find their shooting stroke again and force a couple of costly Yellow Jackets turnovers to end the half up 43-27. They finished the half shooting 53% from the field and 46% from beyond the arc while holding HPU to 9-30 shooting. 

Khyce Randall nailed a three to start the second half and he continued to do his best to keep the game close early. David Dingle and De'Marcus Hurd also provided a nice spark in the half and the Jackets fought tough. They were able to reduce the deficit to 61-50 with 10:26 remaining in the game.

Hardin-Simmons responded by getting the ball into their paint and collecting contact to get to the free throw line. Talen Davis settled in and knocked down two free throws and a jumper from the perimeter to reduce the lead to 10, 75-65 with 5:22 left in the game. Howard Payne would then go bucket for bucket with the Cowboys down the stretch. 

However, Hardin-Simmons continued to knock down their shots and they seemingly had an answer for each run Howard Payne made. After back to back possessions that ended with turnovers, Hardin-Simmons took control of the game for good and held on to capture the 89-75 victory. 

With the win, the Cowboys completed a season sweep against the Yellow Jackets and stay atop the ASC West standings with three games left to go in the regular season.

The Yellow Jackets will next face Concordia University on February 9th at 5:00 PM. Live stats and video will be made available on HPUSports.com and follow along on Twitter @HPUmbsk and on Instagram @HPUsports for in-game updates, interactive content and more.