If you are the 11th-ranked team in the nation, seeing the UTPB men’s basketball team at the other end of the court should be cause for concern.
Six days after defeating then No. 11 St. Edward’s, the Falcon were at it again, this time against Dallas Baptist, the team that supplanted the Hilltoppers in the polls.
It did take a little extra effort, and few extra minutes of waiting when the lights in the gym went out, for UTPB to complete the upset.
Jordan Horn’s 3-pointer with less than a minute to play, moments after the lights came back on, proved to be the game-winner as the Falcons edged the No. 11 Patriots, 99-97, in overtime in Lone Star Conference play Friday at the Falcon Dome.
Jordan finished with a game-high 28 points, with 23 coming after halftime.
“The shot felt good when it left my hand, but I wasn’t sure,” Horn said. “All I know is that having to come back after the lights went out, my legs were killing me, having to wait around.
“This was a really good win for the team, but we know that we have to come focused tomorrow (Saturday) because they are going to be mad and motivated to play better and we have to match that.”
The two-game series concludes at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Falcon Dome.
Quinntez Grimes added 21 points for the Falcons, who improved to 8-6 overall, 7-6 in conference. Trevion Lamar finished with 15 and Adam Rivera 10 in the victory.
Ricky Lujan led Dallas Baptist (9-2) with 27 points, with Chandler Jacobs adding 24, Cameron Kahn 19 and William Heather 15 in the loss.
Lujan had a good look with less than five seconds to play, but watched his shot carom off the rim to be rebounded by UTPB Malik Brikat.
“I don’t know that anyone’s ever played the No. 11 team four games in a row,” UTPB men’s coach Josh Newman said. “We’ve talked about playing our best basketball moving forward and we have on the board right now ‘The Process’ and we really started to say on Jan. 14 that we needed to reembrace the process.
“And I’ve thought the last two games our guys have done that, they’ve played unselfish, they’ve valued the ball the last two games. I thought our guys competed and I thought defensively we locked in.”
