UTPB men's basketball held a lead four different times and hung with Dallas Baptist in the first half, but the Patroits never trailed after halftime in knocking off UTPB 77-70 Saturday afternoon in Heartland Conference action in Odessa, Texas.

The Falcons held their largest lead of the day on their opening possession when Anthony Dees grabbed an offensive rebound and Madison Turner hit a three for the game's first points.

UTPB trailed by as many as six in the first, but rebounded to tie the game at 6:29 on a Turner layup to even the score at 22-22, and went back on top as Keith Martin hit the front end of a pair of free throws. 

Turner and Martin put the Falcons back in the lead with the same two plays two minutes later, but the Patriots went into the break with a four-point, 35-31 lead.

UTPB fell behind by six on Dallas Baptist's first possession of the second half and were able to get within one point three different times in the half; first at 15:06 as Thomas Feeney scored eight straight points for UTPB, at 11:57 when Dwayne Soders intercepted a pass and hit a fast-break dunk and Phadarius Taylor hit a jumper in the lane to trail 46-45, and once more at 7:52 when the Falcons scored four straight points at the line by Feeney and Martin.

The Falcons were unable to get over the hump, and Remy Ndiaye hit a 3-pointer with 5:48 remaining to put DBU back on top by six.

Having cut the lead down to five, Jonathan Perry hit another shot from downtown to give Dallas Baptist an eight-point lead, and the Falcons never got close than five points the remainder of the game.

Feeney led all palyers with 23 points on the day, all of them coming in the second half, on 8-14 shooting for the game with a pair of 3-pointers. Martin added 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting, and Taylors and Soders each ended the day with 10 points.

Perry led Dallas Baptist with 20 points and Ndiaye chipped in 16 as the Patriots balanced offence had seven players score at least six points on the afternoon.

UTPB hits the road the next two weeks, traveling first to San Antonio Thursday night for a 7:30 contest at St. Mary's.