McMurry Hands Men's Basketball First ASC Loss
December 5, 2009


ABILENE, Texas – The University of Texas at Tyler dropped a 66-56 decision to McMurry on Saturday afternoon, marking the Patriots’ first American Southwest Conference men’s basketball loss of the season.

Twenty-one UT Tyler (6-2, 3-1 ASC) turnovers resulting in 25 points and two big McMurry runs proved to be the difference in what was, for the most part, a statistically even game.

McMurry (4-2, 2-1 ASC) jumped to a 12-0 start, led by five at half, then went on a 15-4 run early in the second half and kept the Patriots at bay for the remainder of the contest.

In the losing effort, the Patriots’ Hakeem Kareem had 13 points and 11 rebounds while Neal Welch canned four 3-pointers and scored 12 points.

After the 12-0 start paced by McMurry’s Jeremie Hart scoring three buckets, UT Tyler roared back and eventually took its only lead of the game with 3:33 left in the first half when Michael Johnson’s 3-pointer gave the Patriots a 25-24 lead.

However, just 20 seconds later Robert Moreno found Tim Harrison for a jumper in the lane, which gave McMurry the lead back, and the home team never surrendered the advantage again.

In the second half, McMurry built a 55-45 lead with 7:38 left to go in the game. But, the Patriots wouldn’t lie down piecing together an 8-0 run to cut the lead to two points. However, McMurry countered with a Ricky Burney 3-point basket on the next possession. Then, Travan Porchia countered with a 3-pointer of his own for UT Tyler to make the score 58-56.

However, Moreno sealed the game with another 3-point shot with 1:59 to play that sparked an 8-0 run to close the game for McMurry.

UT Tyler will play at Southwestern Adventist in Keene, Texas, on Wednesday.

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