LONGVIEW, Texas – The Concordia Men's basketball team rallied from an 11-point deficit to defeat UT Tyler 87-84 in the first round of the American Southwest Conference Tournament on Thursday night.

Joe Neal led the Tornados with 27 points, while Ben Page has his third double-double of the season as he scored 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Ephriam Price shot 7-11 from the field ending the night with 17 points. The second half defense was the key for CTX as they shot 48.6 percent from the field while holding the Patriots to 41.4 percent.

In the first half, UTT would shoot over 50 percent from the field and outscoring the Tornados 51-43 in the half. It was a back-and-forth affair early on as Jordan Houston's three-pointer gave CTX a slight 23-22 lead with 10:55 left. The Patriots responded though with a 13-3 run and took their largest lead of the game, 43-32, with 4:38 remaining. The Tornados would cut the deficit to six before a UTT layup at the buzzer made it 51-33 at halftime. Price had 13 points to lead the Tornados, who were outscored 32-18 in the paint and 12-2 on second-chance points.

In the second half, CTX still trailed by double-digits with 14:24 remaining. But a 14-4 run, capped by a Page fast break layup cut the lead to 66-65 with just 10 minutes to play. Price would give the Tornados their first lead of the second half, knocking down a three-pointer to make it 70-68 with 8:47 left.

Down the stretch, it remained a one-possession game as 13 lead changes occurred in the second half alone. Trailing 78-77, Neal would close out the game scoring seven of the team's final nine points, including the free-throw with nine seconds remaining to make it a three-point game. On the final possession, the Patriots' Melvin Anthony three-point shot was off the mark and CTX held on to win 87-84 and advance to the semifinals.

The Tornados will now face the one seed from the East Division in LeToureau, who defeated Sul Ross State in the night cap of the first round of games. The game is set to begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and the winner will move on to the championship game.