RICHARDSON, Texas – The Howard Payne University men's basketball team fell on the road 99-98 to a UT Dallas game winning free-throw with five seconds remaining on Saturday, January 20^th.
 
The Yellow Jackets came out of the gate hot as they scored 52 points in the 1^st half. HPU took advantage of their speed outscoring the Comets 21-6 in fast-break points. Despite the massive size advantage from UT Dallas, Howard Payne was able dominate the paint scoring 34 points in the 20-minute stanza.
 
The Comets responded loudly going on a 14-2 in the first four minutes of the 2^nd half. Donovan Souter highlighted the UTD run notching eight of the 14 points in that span. The Comets were able to slow down HPU and utilize their size in the 2^nd half, only allowing four fast break points and outscoring the Jackets 28-18 in the paint.
 
The Yellow Jackets were able to win the turnover battle forcing 16 Comet turnovers while only committing nine. Armonie Ramey and Jarod Johnson led the way defensively recording three steals each. UTD took the advantage on the glass with 45 total rebounds including 19 offensive. The Comets turned those into 25 second chance points.
 
Howard Payne shot 53% (40-75) from the field while knocking down eight three-pointers at a 34.8% clip. UT Dallas finished 49.3% (36-73) from the field and sunk ten treys.
 
Jarod Johnson notched his first career double-double recording 20 points and a career-high 11 assists. Hudson Johnson followed behind with 25 points and four assists. Armonie Ramey posted an all-around stat line of 19 points, eight rebounds, four assists, and three steals. Rounding out the five double-digit scorers for HPU was Chase Glasper with 14 points and Myles Brown scoring 10.
 
Leading the way for the Comets was Donovan Souter scoring 23 points followed by Jordan Balderaz with 15 points and nine rebounds.
 
The Yellow Jackets will look to bounce back from this tough loss on Thursday, January 25^th as they take on McMurry at 7:30 PM. This will be HPU's first home game since December 16^th where the Jackets took down Concordia (TX) 93-85.