SEGUIN, Texas – After trailing by five points at halftime, McMurry was defensive minded in the second half as they only surrendered seven field goals to Texas Lutheran in the frame en route to winning a crucial American Southwest Conference West Division game Thursday night at Memorial Gymnasium, 69-54.

The win pushes McMurry to 17-7 overall and 16-4 in ASC play as they can clinch their first outright West Division title since the 2001-2002 campaign with a win at Schreiner on Saturday. 

With 16:30 left in regulation it looked as if McMurry was headed for a dogfight down the stretch as TLU held a 37-32 lead.  But McMurry closed the game on a 37-17 run to win the game going away and preserve their chances of winning another ASC West title. 

McMurry dominated the second half as they outscored the Bulldogs 43-23 in the frame.  In the frame, McMurry shot 58 percent from the floor (15 of 26) while the McMurry defense held TLU to a paltry 25 percent (7 of 28). 

In the first half, TLU led for most of the way as the Bulldogs had a lead for the last 17 minutes of the frame.  The score was tied at seven at the 16:51 mark before TLU went on a 7-0 run to take a 14-7 lead with 13:30 remaining in the frame. 

McMurry responded with an 8-2 run of its own to cut their deficit to one, 16-15, with nine minutes until the break.  But TLU would push its first-half lead back up to seven points on two more occasions before taking a five-point advantage (31-26) into halftime. 

The hot second-half shooting by McMurry helped them shoot 51 percent for the game (25 of 49) while the Bulldogs shot just 34 percent (20 of 59) from the field. 

McMurry guard Ricky Burney led McMurry with his game-high 21 points and eight rebounds off the bench.  Senior guard Dewayne Hall followed Burney's lead as he scored 14 points for McMurry.

Other top performers for McMurry included sophomore forward Richard Jones, who scored eight points and grabbed five rebounds; senior guard Jonathan Walker, who scored eight points; and senior guard Robert Moreno, who dished out a game-high seven assists and also collected three steals.