BOX SCORE

Austin, Texas – Larry Durand came off the bench and ignited the offense by scoring 16 of his career-high 19 points in the first half as the Concordia University Texas men's basketball team cruised to a 102-76 victory over LeTourneau in an American Southwest Conference matchup on Saturday, Dec. 4 at the Concordia Field House.

Concordia (3-2, ASC 2-1), which most recently defeated Texas-Tyler by a 69-65 decision on Thursday evening, took a 43-24 advantage into the recess and built its lead up to 18 points courtesy of two Darien Harris layups. The YellowJackets made an attempt to rally and trimmed the deficit down to 11 on a layup by Jordan Hughes, but a thunderous dunk followed by a made free throw by Josh Johnson gave the hosts a 51-37 lead and swayed the momentum back in their favor for the rest of the game.

Connor Davenport canned a trifecta to give the Tornados their largest lead of the game at 88-51 before Gregston Westry helped the squad eclipse the 100-point mark for the first time this season by making two free throws with 2:12 remaining. A layup by the YellowJackets' Jacob McCarthy in the waning seconds sealed the final outcome.

Facing a 4-2 deficit to start the game following a layup by Peter Stahl, Concordia scored the next six points and never surrendered the lead the rest of the way. With the Tornados leading by a 28-11 score, Durand and Tayler Jacobs combined to make four shots from downtown to put the hosts ahead, 40-14, with 6:15 left in the opening frame.

“You have to protect home,” said head coach Stan Bonewitz, whose squad improved its record to a perfect 3-0 at the Concordia Field House this season. “In this league, you've got to win at home and try to split on the road. LeTourneau is a young ballclub that will get better, but we had a couple of good runs. Larry [Durand] hit some shots in the first half and Josh [Johnson] made a couple of big plays in the second half to ignite us. We didn't play great, but it's something to build on.”

In addition to Durand, who scored his 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting, Concordia was also paced by Harris and Johnson. Harris finished with 17 points and five rebounds, while Johnson added 14 points off the bench. Johnson also went 10-for-11 from the charity stripe and blocked five shots. Nick Haynes added 10 points and Collin Perkins had seven points and eight boards. LeTourneau (1-6, ASC 0-4) was led by McCarthy and Stahl, who netted 14 and 11 points, respectively.

Concordia, which has won all three of its home games by an average margin of 19.3 points, continues ASC play when it travels to face Louisiana College on Thursday, Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. and Mississippi College on Saturday, Dec. 11 at 3 p.m.