ABILENE, Texas – The Howard Payne University men's basketball team held Hardin-Simmons to just 38.7% shooting from the field in a 97-85 conference victory for the Yellow Jackets Saturday afternoon at the Mabee Athletic Complex.
Khyce Randall ties the Howard Payne record for three-pointers in a game with seven.
Howard Payne out rebounded Hardin-Simmons 48-36 while the Yellow Jackets connected on 45.6% of their shots from the field, 47.8% (11 of 23) from behind the arc.
The Jackets made a push midway through the first half outscoring Hardin-Simmons 19-6 to open up a 19-point advantage (47-28) with 1:38 remaining in the half. Howard Payne led 50-34 at the break.
Howard Started the second half strong and extended its lead to 25 (61-36) four minutes into the second period. The Cowboys slowly chipped away at the Yellow Jacket lead cutting it to three points, 85-82 with 1:11 left in the game. The Jackets buckled down and with layups by
Timothy Aguero and free-throws by
Khyce Randall and
Javaris Jones Howard Payne held on for the 97-85 victory.
Khyce Randall led all scorers with 35 points moving to 9th all-time in scoring at HPU with 1,604 points. Randall also tied the HPU record for three-pointers in a game with seven (7 of 13) joining Ryan Tomlin (1996), Josh Weatherred (2006) and himself. Randall had also hit seven three-pointers (7 of 11) earlier this year at UT Dallas.
Timothy Aguero had 15 points, eight rebounds and five assists.
Shadd Cole had 12 points.
Rickey Guillory finished with nine points, 10 rebounds and six assists.
Hardin-Simmons was led by Caleb Spoon with 28 points followed by Joe Hoeup with 26. Keenan Holdman had 12 points, six assists and 10 rebounds. Ryan Chaney added 10 points.
Howard Payne is now 9-14 overall and 5-10 in American Southwest Conference play. Hardin-Simmons stands at 8-16 overall and 6-10 in league play. The Jackets will finish out the regular season with two home games Thursday, Feb. 15th versus Concordia Texas at 7:30 pm and Saturday, Feb. 17th versus Mary Hardin-Baylor at 4:00 pm. Saturday, Feb. 17th will be senior day.
