Box Score Box Score

THE RUNDOWN
AUSTIN, Texas – For the third time this season, the St. Edward's men's basketball team knocked off a ranked opponent, this time over No. 14 UAFS Thursday at the RCC. The Hilltoppers (13-4, 3-2) defeated the Lions (14-2, 3-2) 83-75 behind LANDON GOESLING's 31 points, DORIAN LOPEZ's double-double and SEAN WATKINS' career-high 10 assists and zero turnovers.

Defensively, the Hilltoppers held UAFS to 35.7 percent shooting from the floor with the Lions entering the contest shooting 48.9 percent for the season. SEU led 43-35 at half, led by as many as 15 in the second, and held off a fierce Lions rally late to seal the win.

Goesling's 3-pointer with 14:20 remaining in the second half gave SEU a 58-43 lead before the Lions began to chip away at the lead. Twice UAFS cut the lead to two points, and the Lions trailed just 66-64 with 8:20 remaining after a 21-8 run. After a two-minute scoring drought for both teams, Lopez scored five consecutive points to extend the SEU lead to seven at 71-64 with 5:28 remaining. And, from there the Lions would get no closer than three points of the lead.

SEU hit 7-of-10 free throws in the final 2:35 to seal the victory. Goesling finished 8-for-11 from the field and 13-for-13 from the line. Lopez collected a career-high 14 rebounds to accompany 17 points and Watkins' 10 assists were the most by a Hilltopper since Dec. 19, 2011 when ZILIJAN JONES had 12 vs. Harding at home for SEU.


HIGHLIGHTS
• LANDON GOESLING led all scorers with 31 points; he has 24 career games with 10+ points and 16 this season.
• Goesling's 13-for-13 performance at the free throw line ranks second among SEU single-game performances for free throws made without a miss, trailing only Bradly Burdick's 14-for-14 effort vs. Texas Wesleyan, March 1, 2001.
• SEAN WATKINS' 10 assists were the most of his career, and it allowed him to move into fifth place all-time on the SEU career assists list, passing JOHN GRAMLICH (260, 2013-17).
• Lopez's 14 rebounds were a career-high surpassing his previous high of 12; It was the 10th career game for Lopez to have double-digit rebounds and seventh this season. His eighth rebound was career rebound No. 300.
• Lopez's 17 points gave him 15 games this season with 10+ and 29 in his career.
• Lopez has seven career double-doubles.
• JAMES TAYLOR had 12 points giving the junior 38 career games in double figures and 13 this season.

NOTES
• SEU is 3-2 vs. the Top 25 this season with two previous wins over No. 20 Texas A&M-Kingsville Dec. 2 in Austin and again over the No. 23 Javelinas in Kingsville, Dec. 16.
• SEU is 5-2 vs. UAFS in Austin and improved to 7-12 in the overall series.
• SEU head coach Andre Cook is one win away from career victory No. 250.

STAT OF THE GAME I
0 – The amount of turnovers SEAN WATKINS had to go with his career-high 10 assists, the most by a Hilltopper in six seasons.

THEY SAID IT
SEU head coach Andre Cook on the team knocking off another ranked opponent …
"I thought they were fantastic. They were fantastic. We feel like we can score, it's a matter of can we get some stops. We kind of switched our game plan just a little bit from what we usually do, and we held a fantastic Fort Smith team to 36 percent shooting. We did it great. We know they're a terrific rebounding team. We know that, but we held our own and got enough stops. They played really hard tonight."

Cook on holding off the second-half rally by UAFS …
"I thought that DORIAN LOPEZ had a huge 3. If I'm trying to remember the events, they got it to two, he hit a huge three, we held our poise, called time out, [and] talked about things. You just tell them, "We've come too far. We've played too well for 22-23 minutes to let this slip from our hands." They had a look of determination. I knew we were going to be alright. Dorian hit the big three, kind of alleviated a little bit of pressure. Like, "Oh God, they can take the lead" and we made some big plays down the stretch. Got some big stops and rebounds. Just a super job by the guys."

SEU sophomore DORIAN LOPEZ on Thursday's win …
"I think the last time we played against a ranked opponent, it was DBU and we came out kind of flat and this wasn't the case today. I mean the energy from our fans to our bench. Our bench has improved tremendously. I think on the court, if we didn't really have our bench in it, then we wouldn't be the team or have the spark that we had today."

Lopez's thoughts on holding off the UAFS comeback …
"We stayed poised. At the beginning of the year, we probably would have been extremely all over the place and not a unit. Now that we've played a lot longer together, we kind of stayed together as a unit and we kind of kept our composure and played our game."

WHAT'S NEXT
SEU resumes Heartland Conference play at home Saturday vs. Rogers State at 3 p.m.