RICHARDSON, Texas – The McMurry University men's basketball team started the new year off with an 81-61 American Southwest Conference cross-divisional loss to the University of Texas at Dallas at the UTD Activity Center. The ASC West Division War Hawks fell to 6-7 overall (2-3 ASC), while the ASC East Comets team improved to 3-9 on the year (2-3 ASC).
 
Playing its fourth-consecutive road game, McM found the going difficult versus the host UTD squad.  The Comets streaked out to a 5-0 lead to open the game and led wire-to-wire. The War Hawks were a victim of their own mistakes, committing 20 turnovers (15 unforced errors).
 
Freshman Darius Watts – a native of North Dallas High School – returned to his old area and shared high-point honors with teammate Nate Estrada, tallying 15.  Watts came off the McM bench and connected on 4-of-9 from the floor, including three from beyond the arc, while also going a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line. He also pulled down six rebounds and had two assists in his 26 minutes on the floor.
 
Estrada went 6-for-10 from the field and was an unblemished 3-for-3 from long range. Estrada also hauled in four boards.
 
Shakur Smith also had a nice outing off of McM head coach Zach Pickelman's bench. Smith booked 10 points as the War Hawks' third double-digit scorer. Smith was 2-for-3 shooting – all from three-point country – and went 4-for-4 from the charity line.
 
Luke Stephenson added six points.  No other War Hawk had more than three points.
 
The UTD defense held two of McM's leading scorers - LaRandall Scroggins and Kaan Yilmaz - in check. Both averaging better than 12 points per game coming in, each was held to three points in the loss.