BOX SCORE

Brownwood, Texas – Tayler Jacobs netted 29 points and dished out a season-high eight assists in leading the Concordia University Texas men's basketball team to a 95-92 victory over Howard Payne on Saturday, Jan. 29 at the Brownwood Coliseum. By registering their fifth road win in the last six games, the Tornados maintained their fourth-place position in the West Division standings.

Two layups by Donald Lee gave Concordia a quick 4-0 led, but Brandon Irwin, the league's second-leading scorer, poured in nine unanswered points to put Howard Payne up by a 9-4 score at the 16:56 mark. The Yellow Jackets built up a nine-point lead on two occasions, courtesy of a free throw by Donovan Gardner and a layup by Michael Thompson, before the tide turned and the Tornados started to take control at the midway point of the frame.

Jacobs made three free throws in a row after being fouled while taking a shot from beyond the arc to tie the game at 20, and Josh Johnson put the Tornados ahead by canning a trey from the left corner with 10:12 to play. After the Yellow Jackets responded and built up a four-point lead, the Tornados regained control and went ahead for good, 33-31, thanks to five consecutive points on a layup and three shots from the charity stripe by Jacobs. Howard Payne tied the game twice more before Darius Anderson made a fastbreak layup to create the 40-38 halftime score.

Howard Payne (5-14, ASC 4-11) knotted the score up on two occasions in the second half on Irwin and Henry Valladares layups, but Concordia never surrendered the lead the rest of the way. The Tornado lead grew to as many as 12 points on an Anderson trifecta from the right arc which made it 66-54 with 12:35 on the clock.

The Yellow Jackets, however, had a lot of fight in them and made a furious attempt to rally. They brought it down to four after the last media timeout on a Joshua Dada free throw. But the Tornados held their ground and went on a 10-5 run to pull away. Lee had six points on two layups and two free throws during the streak before Chris McDermott, Anderson and Jacobs combined to make eight of 10 free throw attempts in the last minute to hold off the hosts on their home floor.

In addition to posting 29 points and eight assists, Jacobs only committed two turnovers and had three steals to pace the Tornados. The sophomore point guard had a combined 12 assists and two turnovers over the two-game road trip. Anderson finished with 19 points and four steals off the bench and was one shy of his career high in each category. Lee scored 14 points on perfect shooting, going 6-for-6 from the field and 2-for-2 from the line, while Johnson added 13 points and eight boards. Howard Payne was led by Irwin's 30 points and Thompson's 19 points and six rebounds. Quentin Calloway and Gardner netted 12 points apiece, while Gardner also had seven boards.

Concordia (11-8, ASC 9-6) will continue its push for a fifth consecutive postseason berth on Thursday, Feb. 3 when it hosts Sul Ross State at 7:30 p.m.