Box Score | Championship Central 

BROWNWOOD, Texas – The Howard Payne University Men’s Basketball team advances to the American Southwest Conference Semifinals after an 81-71 quarterfinal win over East Texas Baptist University on Tuesday night in Brownwood.

Howard Payne opened the quarterfinal on an 11-0 run led by Hudson Johnson with five points. The Yellow Jackets created a 15-point lead at the 10:02 mark before the Tigers used a 13-7 run led by Colin Roberts and Jason Justice to start chipping away at the gap. Back-to-back buckets from Justice shaved the margin to six at the 5:53 mark.

Howard Payne used a collective 8-2 run to bring their lead back to 12, but a persistent Tiger offense brought the contest within three with 17 second remaining. Howard Payne’s Hudson Johnson hit a layup with four seconds on the clock to close the half ahead 44-39.

Howard Payne jumped to a seven-point lead to start the second half before the Tigers used a 7-2 run to cut the gap to two at the 14:35 mark. The contest continued basket-for-basket with a Jason Justice three-pointer putting ETBU within one point, 55-54.

A pair of Hudson Johnson free throws sparked a 19-4 run for Howard Payne, putting them back ahead by 16 with 4:01 on the clock. The Tiger defense held the Yellow Jackets to just four points in the final minutes as ETBU’s Jason Justice led the offense with seven points, but could not overcome the deficit, giving Howard Payne the 81-71 win.

ETBU’s Jason Justice led with 30 points while HPU’s Hudson Johnson totaled 22 and Armonie Ramey added 21. Michael Roberts recorded 15 rebounds for the Tigers while Ramey had 14 on the night for a double-double. Howard Payne’s Riley Fornerette totaled nine assists in the Yellow Jacket’s victory.  

No. 4 Howard Payne will face No. 1 Hardin-Simmons in the ASC Semifinals on Friday, February 28^th at 2:30 p.m. in Marshall.