LONGVIEW, Texas – In front of a raucous crowd at LeTourneau's Solheim Arena, the McMurry men's basketball team won the battle of first-place teams in the American Southwest Conference as McMurry outlasted the Jackets in a 65-63 barnburner of a game Thursday night. 

The conference win pushes McMurry to 7-4 overall and 6-1 in ASC play, which keeps them in sole possession of first place in the West Division with at least a two-game lead on every team in the division.  McMurry, who is currently riding a three-game conference-winning streak, will continue its East Texas road swing on Saturday when they take on East Texas Baptist in another ASC crossover contest.  Tip time is slated for 3 p.m. and the game will be broadcasted on KZQQ, 1560 AM. 

Meanwhile, LeTourneau falls to 8-4 and 6-1, which places the Jackets in a first-place tie in the East Division with the University of Texas at Dallas, a team McMurry headed its only loss of the season to last Saturday. 

It was fitting that this game went down to the wire.  The Jackets held a 63-61 advantage until McMurry sophomore forward Richard Jones made a layup and was fouled with only thirty seconds remaining.  Jones then made the free-throw attempt to give McMurry a 64-63 advantage.  After a series of timeouts, LeTourneau's Dale Vanwright drove the lane but missed a jumper and McMurry's Jamal Anene rebounded the ball and was fouled with nine seconds remaining. 

Anene made his first attempt from the charity stripe but missed the second one, which enabled the Jackets one last attempt to tie the game with a two or win the game with a three.  LeTourneau's James Rockmore went for the win but his 3-point attempt at the buzzer hit off the back of the iron and missed. 

After trailing the entire first half, McMurry took its first lead of the game at the 14:26 mark in the second half when Dewayne Hall nailed a 3-pointer to give McMurry a 42-39 advantage.  McMurry eventually grew its lead to seven points (48-41 with 12:52 remaining in regulation) before LeTourneau made a run of its own to provide the thrilling finish. 

Both teams exchanged a series of scoring runs in the first half.  The Jackets came out on their home floor ready to play as they started the first eight minutes of the game on a 13-3 run.  But McMurry struck right back with a 12-0 run of its own to tie the game at 15 with nine minutes remaining in the first half.  LeTourneau then mounted an 11-0 run over the next five minutes to take a 30-19 lead with only four minutes remaining until the break.  From there, McMurry was able to chip four points off its deficit before halftime as the Jackets took a 34-27 advantage into the break. 

Senior guard Jonathan Walker again led McMurry effort as he finished with a team-high 16 points.  Jones added 16 points and Hall chipped in 15 points to finish out the double-digit scorers for McMurry.  McMurry guard Robert Moreno finished the game with a game-high 10 assists and also a game-high four steals.