Crusaders Men's Basketball Suffers Slow Start in Saturday's Contest at Austin College
SHERMAN, Texas - The University of Dallas men's basketball team finished its season opening two-game road trip to Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) opponent Austin College this weekend. Dallas played the second game of the two-game series away on Saturday afternoon, and a slow start in the first half led to a 78-66 setback.
Dallas started off the game's scoring with a layup by Letrell Toussaint (Waco, Texas) followed by a basket by Jacob Giunta (Keller, Texas) to give UD its largest lead of the game at 4-0.
Austin eventually took the lead 11-8 on a three pointer by Michael Holland, and the 'Roos never relinquished their lead.
Austin College outshot the Crusaders in the first half, shooting 48.6% to UD's 33.3%. Austin's proficient shooting gave them a 45-27 halftime lead.
Toussaint and Jai Love (St. Louis, MO) led the Crusader scorers with six points apiece. Austin's Kam Hogan led all scorers with 15 points in the first half.
Dallas started the second half like the first as Toussaint started the scoring with a layup. Marcus Juarez (Clint, Texas) scored nine points in the second half, and Dallas also picked up a good performance from the bench by Matt Holloway (Melissa, Texas) who scored 10 second half points.
Austin took their largest lead with about 14 minutes left in the game on a three-pointer by Joshua Joe (Hurst, Texas).
Dallas improved their second half team performance, shooting 44.8% for the frame as Austin's shooting fell to 37.9%.
Dallas ended the game on an 8-1 run to bring the final score to 78-66. Dallas shot 39.0% for the game while Austin shot 43.8%.
Toussaint was the Crusaders' top scorer with 13 points and had a game high 11 rebounds for his second straight double-double. Holloway and Juarez also scored double-digits with 12 and 11 respectively. Love was the game leader in assists with five.
Austin had several big performances as Hogan was the game high scorer with 23 points also chipping in six rebounds, four assists, and three steals. Jason Jones Jr. and Holland both had double-doubles, each with 10 rebounds and 18 and 12 points, respectively.
Austin sweeps the season series with the win and improves their record to 2-0 overall and in conference. Dallas with the loss falls to 0-2 both on the year and in SCAC play. Dallas will come back to Irving for their next four games. They take on the 2019-2020 regular season champions St. Thomas (Houston) on Friday the 22nd and Saturday the 23rd at 8 p.m. and 4 p.m. UD then hosts SCAC tournament champions Centenary College of Louisiana the following weekend on Friday the 29th and Saturday the 30th at 8 p.m. and 4 p.m.