BOX SCORE

Austin, Texas – Kenny Williams registered his first career double-double and Darius Anderson netted a career-best 23 points off the bench, shooting 8-for-11 from the field and 3-for-3 from long range, to propel the Concordia University Texas men's basketball team to a 106-82 win over Sul Ross State on Thursday, Feb. 3 at the Field House. The Tornados hit five of their season-high 17 3-pointers in the last five minutes to cruise to their second straight victory.

Concordia, which led 51-46 at the half, went on a 12-3 run to start the second half. Nick Haynes and Tayler Jacobs each canned a shot from downtown during the stretch. Anderson canned a trifecta to extend the Tornado lead to 15 at the 13:49 mark and another shot from downtown to give his team an 18-point cushion at 77-59 with 9:21 left to play, but Sul Ross State chipped away at the deficit and got back into the game. A layup by Jeremy Hammond sliced the deficit to single digits, 81-72, with just over five minutes left.

The Tornados, however, put their foot on the gas pedal and went on a shooting spree to break the game open, which began with a Kenny Williams trey at the 5:05 mark that sparked the 20-4 run. In addition to Williams, Concordia also got 3-point field goals from Chris McDermott, Anderson, Jacobs and Jason Recendez in a span of 3:14 to put the game away.

“I wish that there was a coaching formula I came up with or some adjustment I made (that I could explain),” stated head coach Stan Bonewitz on the team's shooting outburst from long range at the end of the game. “We just had a lot of really good guys step up and make plays and make shots. It was a good team effort with a lot of individuals contributing to what was truly a team win.”

Sul Ross State (8-12, ASC 7-9) got off to a hot start by scoring the game's first 10 points. Travis Johnson had eight points and an assist in the early going to put the Lobos ahead by double figures in the opening 3:05 of the game.

Concordia, however, fought back and took its first lead at the 12:45 mark when Greg Brown nailed a jumper to make it 18-16. Haynes broke a 20-all tie just past the midway point of the stanza to keep the Tornados ahead for good. Donald Lee drilled a 3-pointer and Josh Johnson slammed home a dunk after stealing the ball at midcourt to give the Tornados a 41-28 cushion to work with before the Lobos finished off the half strong. A three-point field goal by Johnson and two free throws by Bralyn Thomas in the last 20 seconds created a 51-46 score at the break.

In addition to Anderson's career scoring night, Concordia had three other players net double figures to help the squad eclipse the 100-point mark for the seventh time this season. Jacobs netted 24 points on 8-for-11 shooting, which included hitting six 3-pointers, and dished out six assists. Williams notched his first career double-double with 13 points and a career-best 10 helpers. He also set another career mark with six assists. Haynes added 11 points and two assists.

“We talked to our guys about the importance of guarding on the perimeter and not allowing their guards to have the access to the paint that they had in Alpine (a week ago),” added Bonewitz, whose squad avenged last Thursday's 100-99 loss to the same opponent. “I don't know if we did a great job at it, but I know we did a better job. Over the course of the game, we made them shoot more jumpers. Fortunately, we got them to miss some of those shots, and then of course on our end offensively we shot the ball really well.”

Concordia (12-8, ASC 10-6) will look to win its third game in a row when it hosts Howard Payne on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 3:00 p.m.