LUBBOCK, Texas (January 4, 2020) – For their fifth straight win in Lone Star Conference play, the Lubbock Christian men's basketball team held off UT Permian Basin, topping the Falcons 72-67 in the Rip Griffin Center.
 
The Chaps are now four games above .500 at 8-4 and have a 5-2 overall Lone Star Conference record with a 2-1 record in divisional play. They have also been winners in five straight games dating back to the December 14 win against Tarleton. The five-game win streak is the longest since LCU won five straight from February 17 to March 3 of 2017.
 
UTPB got on the board first thanks to a three-pointer from Donoven Carlisle and led early. The time with the Falcons on top only lasted about a minute and a half, however. The Chaps connected on their first six three-point attempts to get in front and took the lead for good at the 14:35 mark. Freshman Ty Caswell hit three of the six threes to open the game on his way to matching his career high with five overall. He led LCU with 19 points.
 
Neither team went on a run of more than seven points for the entire game, but the Chaps forced enough stops on defense and took advantage of their first half offensive opportunities enough to build the lead all the way out to 13 points on a three-pointer from Silas Crisler with 6:49 left in the half.
 
All but three of LCU's made shots in the first half were from outside the arc, as they went 11-31 (35.5 percent) from the field, but shot 57.1 percent (8-14) on three-pointers. Caswell hit four of those threes, along with Crisler, Parker Hicks, Cameron Copley and Lloyd Daniels. Caswell, Crisler, Hicks and Copley all finished the game in double-figures, while Daniels scored five points and tallied five assists. Copley was the team leader with seven assists, and Rashaan Proctor pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.
 
The struggles to shoot the ball inside the arc hampered Lubbock Christian's ability to go on any kind of run though, and UTPB's Pat Dembley got to the free throw line twice in the final minute of the first half and hit all four foul shots to put the Falcons down by just three with the teams heading into the locker room.
 
Dembley, who was already the Lone Star Conference's leading scorer, still played well in the loss with 35 points in 36 minutes on the floor. He was 7-14 from the field (3-9 from behind the arc) and took 13 free throws while LCU as a team took only 15 all game.  
 
The Chaps scored the first four points of the second half to build the lead back out to seven points, but still could not sustain any kind of run to put the Falcons away for good. UTPB got as close as two at the 16:55 mark, but Hicks hit a jumper on LCU's next time down the floor to keep the Chaps in front, and Caswell followed up with his fifth three-pointer of the game for some breathing room.
 
UT Permian Basin got the lead back down to two points again with 10:26 left in the game thanks to three-pointers from Dembley and Adam Rivera. Hicks stopped the run again, scoring the next five LCU points all on his own. The Chaps seemed to be putting the game away with 6:23 to play, as Copley hit a three-pointer to extend the lead to 10.
 
The Falcons got into the bonus, though, at Dembley took advantage with eight free throw attempts in the final five minutes of the game. He made six of his foul shot attempts and hit a three-pointer down the stretch as well, but LCU had time on its side. UTPB committed fouls on Copley and Daniels, and the two hit their free throws to complete the win.
 
TURNING POINT
UT Permian Basin was still had a chance to win the game after a layup by Carson Newsome had them down only three points with more than seven minutes left in the game. The Chaps scored 10 of the game's next 12 points, however, capped off by three-pointers from Copley and Crisler to create breathing room for LCU down the stretch.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Although they shot a respectable 43.3 percent on three-pointers in the win, Lubbock Christian's overall shooting percentage of 37.7 percent was their second-worst in a single game this season and marked the first time they have won a game when shooting worse than 40 percent from the field. UTPB shot just 38.8 percent, which was their third-lowest field goal percentage of the year.
 
NEXT UP
Lubbock Christian has just one game next week, hosting Angelo State at 3 p.m. on January 11 in the Rip Griffin Center.