Box Score
ABILENE, Texas – McMurry University stiffened its defensive effort late in the second half and handed UT-Dallas a 72-60 defeat at Kimbrell Arena Saturday afternoon.
Steven Jones scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead McMurry to a 3-1 record in the American Southwest Conference.
Trailing 50-46 in the second half, McMurry went on a 16-1 run capped by a Jones layup with 3:21 to play giving McMurry a 62-51 advantage. From there, the Comets would nearly match McMurry step for step, but never got closer than within eight points of the lead.
After Curtis Davis a 3-pointer with 10:19 remaining to make the score 50-46, McMurry's defense held UT-Dallas to a 3 for 15 effort for the remainder of the game sparking the run.
“We tried to stay in engaged and defend every possession. [UT-Dallas] is so good offensively, you have to contest everything and not give up cheap ones,” said McMurry head coach Matt Garnett. “I think limiting second shots was huge and contesting every jumper was huge.”
UT-Dallas, who was ranked in the D3hoops.com Top 25 to start the season, lost its third-straight contest to McMurry with its last win over the team Jan. 12, 2008. McMurry has taken six out of the last seven matchups between the two squads.
Curtis Davis scored 15 points against his old team in the losing effort for UTD with 15 points. Davis played his first two seasons of college ball at McMurry from 2007-2009 before transferring to UTD. Chris Barnes had 13 points, Greg Chiasson had 11 and Brandon Greene added 10.
Jones finished 8 of 14 from the floor and also added two assists and two steals to accompany his double-double.
Jaden Isler had 15 points and five boards while
Steven Johunkin chipped in 12 and six respectively. McMurry shot 42 percent from the floor and kept the Comets at a 34-percent effort.
McMurry's bench outscored the Comets 15-6 Saturday, but Garnett said that the defensive efforts from the reserves were the key.
“Our kids on bench have bought into being ready when they're number is called in whatever a situation presents on any given night,” he said. “They came in, gave us toughness defensively, Anthony [Johnson] especially, and they came in with attack personality. I think being able to be a little more fresh than they were with 10 minutes to
play and dug into get stops was important.”
Garnett played four players off the bench averaging more than 13 minutes per player while UT-Dallas played five off the bench but were only able to give the Comets starters 6.6 minutes of rest per player.
Johnson finished with two of McMurry's eight steals while adding eight points and six boards.
McMurry won the rebounding battle 46-35; in all five of its victories this season, McMurry has come out on top in the rebounding category whereas in the two losses, McMurry did no when the battle on the boards.
“If you're a team that wants to play a game that values every possession, then the rebounding statistics are huge,” said Garnett. “We create more possessions if we can win the rebounding battle, and I think it is a direct correlation to winning because we give ourselves a chance and give more opportunities.”
The home team improved to 5-2 overall and remains tied atop the ASC West at 3-1. UT-Dallas fell to 4-2 overall and 3-2 in league play from the east division.
McMurry returns to action Dec. 14 against Hardin-Simmons at 7:30 p.m.
