McMurry Men Blow Past Concordia-Texas, 111-79

Steven Jones' Big Game Paced the War Hawks

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ABILENE, Texas - Concordia-Texas entered Thursday night's game in fifth place in the American Southwest Conference West division race, right behind host McMurry University. But by the time the dust had settled in the War Hawks' 111-79 win, that gap probably looked much larger to the Tornados.

McMurry trailed only 28 seconds of the game, after Concordia stole the ball and made an uncontested layup on the opening play of the game. After that, it was all McMurry for the duration. A trey by point guard Jaden Isler (12 points) made it 3-2 and opened the flood gates for a 15-0 run by the War Hawks.

McM led by 21 points at the half, 54-33.

For head coach J.D. Isler, it was the most prolific offensive effort by his team this season. The War Hawks shot an impressive 61 percent from the field (41-67) from the floor on the night. the McMurry team was equally effective at the charity line where the squad converted 26-of-33 attempts. Conner Robinson tallied all 10 of his game points from the free throw stripe (10-13).

But it was senior forward Steven Jones who lowered the boom on Concordia. The 6-3, 270-lb. forward had a monster game with 21 points, 12 rebounds and four steals. Jones hit seven-of-14 from the field.

In all, six McMurry players scored in double digits. In addition to Isler, Jones and Robinson, Bryce Hill added 15 points and Alfred Perez had a career-high 11 points (both off the McM bench). Starter Bryant Taylor's 10 points rounded out the double-figure sextet.

"We did exactly what we talked about in practice," J.D. Isler said. "We said we were not going to panic on the press - because we're good enough ball handlers - and we're going to attack the basket. But if we didn't have a layup, we were going to pull it out and make them guard us, and that's what we did all night.

"We were tremendous about (not) turning the ball over and we were tremendous about our shot selection. I'm really pleased that our guys were disciplined enough to do exactly what we wanted to do."

The game was the War Hawks' seventh contest this season in which they scored 90 or more points. Conversely, the Tornados were held well below their season average of better than 90 points per game.

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