Box Score Box Score

THE RUNDOWN
AUSTIN, Texas – The No. 10-ranked UT Permian Basin Falcons flexed their muscles on St. Edward's home floor Tuesday, with a 90-81 win over the Hilltoppers at the RCC. The Falcons shot 55 percent and held SEU to a season-low 34.4 percent shooting effort in the win.

SEU competed well, especially after trailing 34-20 with 5:53 left in the first half; the Hilltoppers (10-3) stormed back to close the half on a 21-10 run capped by a SEAN WATKINS 3-pointer with eight seconds left in the first frame.

However, the Falcons (9-1) started strong in the second half building the lead back to 10 points at 64-54 on a Daeshon Francis free throw with 13:12 remaining. From there the Hilltoppers chipped away at the lead, but Francis' layup with 5:25 to go gave UTPB an 80-70 lead, and SEU would not come closer than within five points of the lead the rest of the way.

The Falcons' Francis, one of the nation's top scorers, led all players with 21 points while Sammy Allen had 13 points and a game-high 16 boards.

The Hilltoppers hit just 22 of 64 shots from the floor, 9 of 36 from long range, but kept itself in the game with a 28 for 36 performance from the free-throw lines. SEAN WATKINS tied for the team lead with 15 points and tied a career-high with eight assists. Landon Goesling scored 13 of his 15 points from the free-throw line.

HIGHLIGHTS
• SEAN WATKINS tied a career high with eight assists (8 vs. Colorado Christian, 11/11/16) and is six assists shy of 250 for his career.
• Watkins scored 15 points and tied a season-high with five rebounds; it marked the eighth time this season he's scored in double figures and the 24th time of his career.
• Dorian Lopez scored in double figures for the 25th time in his career and 11th this season with 14 points; he also added four assists.
• JAMES TAYLOR's 12 points gave the junior 35 career games with double-digit points and 10 this season.
• Landon Goesling tied for the team lead with 15 points, hitting 13-of-16 free throws and he kept his streak of double-digit scoring games alive at 13.
• Sean Phillips scored 14 points and had four 3-pointers; the freshman has 14 3-point field goals made in his last three games. It was his seventh game of the season to score 10+.

NOTES
• SEU is 3-4 vs. ranked opponents under head coach Andre Cook since the 2009-10 season.
• UTPB improved in the all-time series to 10-14, and the Falcons have won 10 of the last 16.

STAT OF THE GAME I
44 – UTPB had 44 points in the paint compared to SEU's 14.

STAT OF THE GAME II
1 – Tuesday marked the first game all season that SEU trailed at the half, as the Hilltoppers went into the locker room down 44-41.

THEY SAID IT
SEU head coach Andre Cook on the No. 10 Falcons' performance vs. his team …
"They are well coached, I mean sometimes you see a team that has so many athletes like that, maybe the coach doesn't get as much credit as he deserves, but Andy [Newman] does a great job with those guys. They've been off for two weeks, and I thought that us being in such competitive games in the last couple of days would be an advantage for us. And, I think I miscalculated on that. It was an advantage to them. They had two weeks to just look at St. Ed's stuff and they were well prepared for us. We seemed like we lacked a little juice for having a top ten team in our gym."

Cook on the positives for the Hilltoppers in the loss …
"I think, at least one, is Sean Phillips. Saturday, he suffered an injury at the end, and he worked with our trainer, [Dominic Worrell], hard for three-straight days to get him ready to play. That 19 year-old kid from Tyler, Texas showed some true grit to play 33 minutes today against one of the best teams we'll play this year."

Cook reflecting on the season heading into the Christmas break …
"I just talked to the guys. You know, we're gonna be upset today and into the evening, but tomorrow I am going to wake up and I'm gonna say, hey we are a 10- 3 basketball team. We've got ranked wins, we have a really good basketball team that has put together a really good first semester. I am proud of our guys. I love coaching these guys and the people around us. There's going to be some great challenges in the second semester and I'm looking forward to a week off. They're all looking forward to it too, to refuel, re-juice, and regenerate ourselves and come back on the 27th ready to go."

WHAT'S NEXT
SEU will play host to Dallas Christian Dec. 31 at 2 p.m. after 10 days off.