February 7, 2008
San Antonio – Marcus Hill and Robert Owens each scored 18 points to lead a furious second half comeback, but it wasn’t enough as St. Mary’s University fell to Dallas Baptist, 78-75, in Heartland Conference men’s basketball action Thursday night at Bill Greehey Arena.
DBU led for nearly the entire second half and used a 12-3 run to take a nine-point lead at 74-65 with 2:28 left in the game. The Rattlers started their comeback with a pair of free throws by Dominique Richardson (Sr., San Antonio) with 2:18 left to play. The Rattlers got the ball right back on a turnover by the Patriots and Marcus Hill (Sr., Longview) converted with a driving lay-up with 2:01 to play. Another DBU turnover gave the Rattlers another opportunity and Robert Owens (Jr., Oakwood) hit a lay-up and was fouled with 1:47 left. He converted on the three-point play to make it a two-point game.
Armie Lewis made it a three-point game, making one-of-two free throws with 1:12 left. But the Rattlers came right back and Rod Bellard (Jr., Beaumont) hit a fade-away three-pointer with 45 seconds left to tie the game at 75. But Shelby Lewis responded with a three-pointer with 15 seconds left to give the Patriots the lead. Richardson’s three-pointer at the buzzer was off the rim, ending the game.
Owens hit on 4-of-8 shots from the field and 10-of-13 from the free throw line to score 18 points. Hill hit on 6-of-11 shots from the field, including 4-of-8 from three-point range. Richardson had eight points and 12 assists. As a team the Rattlers shot 49.0 percent (24-49) from the field, but committed 22 turnovers.
Nick Michels led the Patriots with 17 points on 7-of-13 shots from the field. He was one of four Patriots scoring in double figures, with Braxton Adamson (12), Dwight Coleman (11) and Brandon Wash (11) also scoring in double figures. As a team the Patriots hit on 58.5 percent (31-53) of their shots from the field in the game, including 72.7 percent (16-22) in the second half.
With the loss the Rattlers fell to 11-9 overall and 4-2 in Heartland Conference play. DBU improved to 6-14, 2-5. St. Mary’s will return to action on Saturday when they host St. Edward’s University in the second game of a men’s/women’s doubleheader at Bill Greehey Arena, starting at 5:30 p.m. Both games will be for first place in the Heartland Conference.