BROWNWOOD – Howard Payne held off a fierce late rally and defeated McMurry 86-81 to hold on to fourth place in the American Southwest Conference West Division Thursday night. McMurry cut the lead to 84-81 with 10 seconds remaining, however, Lee Scott hit two free throws with six seconds left to seal the game for the Yellow Jackets.

Much like the women's game Thursday night, McMurry's men dug themselves into a large first-half hole trailing 47-29 at half. However, DeWayne Hall and Alex Robles shot McMurry back into the game.

However, when it came time to really close the gap, McMurry missed its 10 of its final 11 3-point attempts. Chris Beck cleaned up the mess on the inside and the free-throw line by scoring 12 points in the final five minutes. But, had the outside shots fallen late, McMurry could have pulled off an improbable victory.

Howard Payne's starters all scored in double figures for the evening with Lee Scott leading the way with 24 points. Tom Hermann scored 16 and Gary Thompson, Bryan Blalock and Brock Woods all scored 12 apiece.

Hall finished with 22 points, Beck had 20 points and 10 boards and Robles added 19. Beck was especially impressive in the final five minutes, but had a solid game all around. He was 5 of 10 from the floor and 10 of 11 from the charity stripe.

McMurry turned the ball over just 10 times while forcing 15 HPU turnovers, however, the Yellow Jackets couldn't be stopped from shooting the ball well. Howard Payne shot 58 percent for the game on 36 of 62 shooting. Scott had 17 of his 24 points in the first half and finished 9 of 14 from the field.

Had McMurry won, it would have tied with HPU for the fourth-place spot in the ASC West. However, with the loss McMurry falls to 8-10 on the season and 5-9 in league play. The Yellow Jackets evened their overall record at 9-9 and also in ASC competition with a 7-7 mark.

McMurry will need to pick up a win Saturday in Alpine against Sul Ross State. The game is scheduled for a 3 p.m. tipoff.