BROWNWOOD, Texas – The Howard Payne University men's basketball team dropped its first game of the season 88-76 to Southwestern University Tuesday in non-conference action.

Southwestern hit 14 of 29 three-pointers (48.6%) in the game while the Yellow Jackets shooting percentage fell in the second half leading to the 88-76 Southwestern outcome.

Howard Payne led 48-47 at the half, but Southwestern used a run midway through the second period that the Jackets could not recover from.

Howard Payne did get balanced scoring with Harold Myart leading the Jackets with 13 points followed by Michael House, Jaylan Ballou, Fredrick Watts with 12 points each. Watts and Reese Ridder grabbed six rebounds each for HPU.

Southwestern was led by Jacob Hester with 20 points and Kyle Poerschke with 12 rebounds.

Howard Payne is now 2-1 overall and 1-0 in ASC play. Southwestern stands at 2-3 overall. The Jackets will play next on Thursday in Alpine, Texas versus Sul Ross State University at 7:30 pm.