MARSHALL, Texas – Scoring 53 points in the first half, the East Texas Baptist University men's basketball team would cruise to a 91-71 victory over the University of Ozarks Eagles in American Southwest Conference East Division play. ETBU is currently 16-3 overall and 10-2 in the ASC and now has won 13 of their last 14 games.

Four of the five starters finished with double-figures as everyone would score on the team except one player. For the second game in a row, Westin Riddick was ETBU's top scorer with 15 points on five-of-nine three-pointers. Darrice Whitley made a game high six field goals for 14 points while Landin Brown nearly had a double-double with 13 points, seven rebounds and nine assists. Robby Dooley collected 11 points while Nathan Fontenot came off the bench with 10 points and seven rebounds as well. One starter and one reserve tallied double-figures for UO as both Zach Bobo and Keon Jenkins scored 14 points each.

ETBU out shot UO from the field with a 44.3%-38.5% while winning the rebound battle with 45-40. With 20 turnovers from UO, ETBU tallied 22 points off the turnovers while scoring 32 points in the paint while UO scored 24.

For everyone to participate in the game, ETBU head coach Brandon Curran was certainly pleased by their efforts to contribute. "I was really happy with the fact that everybody got to play and everybody got to contribute," said Coach Curran. "Everybody got to play extended minutes. The Lord has gifted our team with guys who are willing to lay down their lives for basically their desire for more minutes, different roles, and things like that. These are talented guys and they're willing to lay that down for the good of the team. So I've just been so proud of these guys and what they've done. It was a great team win tonight. Everybody got to contribute and it was a lot of fun."

Starting the game off with five straight points on a Jordan Gosey layup (19:02) and a Riddick three (18:39), ETBU would see UO capture the lead with six straight points to lead 6-5 (17:45). ETBU then answered with a 13 straight points on the verge of a 16-2 run (16:57-12:53) to lead 21-8. The rest of the half would see ETBU keep the lead around ten to sixteen points as they led by as much as 16 (34-18; 7:28), while UO would cut the lead to as close as nine points at 44-35 (1:14). But ETBU would finish the first half with three three-pointers courtesy of Brown (1:03, 0:35) and Fontenot to give ETBU a 53-35 lead at the break. In the first half, ETBU would make 54.1% of their shots, which included 47.8% from downtown.

The second would see the margin be around fifteen-to-seventeen points before ETBU would stretch their lead to twenty-two (67-45) nearly seven minutes in with a three by Riddick. The Eagles would cut the deficit to under twenty points at 70-52 (10:27) and they would nearly keep the deficit around ten to nineteen points for the next seven minutes until Whitley made a layup to push the lead to 83-62 (3:59). A pair of free throws by Jarrell Taylor (3:38) would make it 85-62 before UO would make the next five points culminating on a layup by Bryce Johnson (1:58) to trail 85-67. In the end, ETBU would secure the twenty-point win by layups from Taylor (1:12), Richard Johnson (0:46), and free throws by Dion Mack (0:29) to preserve the 91-71 victory.
 
ETBU will have five more days before they'll take on UO again on Thursday in Clarksville, Ark., at 7:30 PM.