Box Score
The University of Texas of the Permian Basin men's basketball team never was able to regroup after a quick start by St. Edward's in a 93-80 loss Thursday night in Odessa, Texas.
The Hilltoppers never trailed in the game and put the Falcons in a seven-point hole early on with a layup and free throw at the 13:08 mark of the first half.
St. Edward's led by as many as 17 in the final minutes of the first half, but the Falcons cut into the lead, pulling the margin to 11 points on free throws from
Xavier Martin and
Fabian Sebastian, and a fast-break layup by Martin with 3:22 remaining to pull UTPB to 36-25. A 3-pointer from
Anthony Dees with 39 seconds left in the half cut it to a 10-point game, but a pair of free throws with three seconds remaining gave the Hilltoppers a 12 point advantage at halftime.
The Falcons were able to work the lead down early on the in the second, using back-to-back 3-pointers from
Xavier Martin and
Rob Heyer to close to within five at 49-44. A basket in the paint by
Fabian Sebastian two and a half minutes later left the Falcons trailing by four at 52-48 with 12:25 remaining.
Four points was as close as UTPB could get as St. Edward's scored the next 11 points, using three straight threes by John Rutherford to build its lead up to 15 points with 10:53 left in the game. The Hilltoppers led by at least 10 points over the remainder of the half in taking the 13-point win.
Xavier Martin scored a season-high 31 points, sinking five 3-pointers on the night while making 10-of-14 attempts from the free throw line to record the highest point total in a game for UTPB this season. Dees added 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting, contributing four from long range on the night.
UTPB hit its first 14 attempts from the free throw line and shot 22-of-29 from the line for the game (75.9 percent).
Shimeek Johnson led the Hilltoppers with 25 points and tied for the team lead with nine rebounds, hitting all nine of his attempts from the line while going 8-of-15 from the field.
The Falcons are back in action Thursday, Feb. 28 to close out the Heartland Conference portion of its schedule on the road at Dallas Baptist.
