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BELTON, Texas – The 20-year career of McMurry's head men's basketball coach Ron Holmes came to an end Friday in the American Southwest Conference tournament quarterfinals as McMurry dropped a back-and-forth battle to East Texas Baptist 85-77 to end the 2009-10 season.
McMurry led 57-48 with 10:31 remaining in regulation, but the Tigers spent the next 5:26 of the contest fighting back to take a 65-64 lead with 5:05 remaining.
Jamal Anene hit one of two free throws to tie the score at 65 with 4:39 remaining. However, James Morman's bucket with 4:29 left for the Tigers gave ETBU the lead for good and sparked a 10-0 run to put the Tigers up 10 points with 2:22 remaining.
Chris Hergenreter's second consecutive 3-pointer put McMurry within striking distance cutting the Tiger lead to three points with 1:02 remaining at 78-72. However, McMurry missed four of its next five shots and ETBU sank five out of its last six free-throw attempts to ice the game.
McMurry, who entered the game as the No. 2 seed from the ASC West Division, ended the year with a 17-9 record while the Tigers, the No. 3 seed from the east division, advance to play UT-Dallas in the semi-finals Saturday at 2 p.m. and improved to 15-11.
Holmes ends his career with a 347-184 overall record with McMurry, and he collected over 500 wins as a head basketball coach between the high school and collegiate levels. He led McMurry to three ASC titles in 1997, 2000 and 2001.
Steven Luckey scored a season-high 28 points and hit six 3-point field goals. McMurry tied a season-high with 12 made 3-pointers.
Jeremie Hart scored 19 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
Ryan Boyd, in his last year with the program scored 12 points on 5 of 6 shooting in his final game.
Robert Moreno, the Bob Cousy Award Finalist for the NCAA's top point guard, finished his career with a nine-assist performance and added four steals and five rebounds as well. He finished his career with 469 assists and 187 steals and a career assists-to-turnover ratio of 1.81:1.
Jamal Anene concluded his two-year career with McMurry Friday as well scoring three points and grabbing four rebounds.
ETBU took advantage of its opportunities at the free-throw line hitting 20 of 24 attempts, and the Tigers shot 47 percent for the game. Morman finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds while Deba Egharevba also had a double-double with 16 points and 11 boards. Jacob Turnipseed added 17 points and a team-high five assists.
Holmes hands the reins to assistant coach Matt Garnet for the 2010-2011 season after he and Hershel Kimbrell combined to be McMurry's head coaches for the past 51 seasons.
