AUSTIN, Texas – In front of a near capacity crowd the St. Edward's Men's Basketball team put on a show, defeating Arkansas-Fort Smith 86-65 to improve to 22-2 on the year and 12-1 in Heartland Conference action.
 
St. Edward's offense was slow to start as the Lions surged out to a 24-14 lead ten minutes in. Back-to-back threes from RYAN GARZA tied the game for the first time, 31-31, with 3:10 to go in the half. SEU held UAFS scoreless in the final three and a half minutes to take a four-point led into the locker room, 35-31.
 
COREY SHERVILL opened the second half on fire, hitting a pair from long range to kickoff a run for the Hilltoppers. By the 8:52 mark St. Edward's led by 17, 65-48, and used pressure defense to force the Lions into turnovers and bad shots that resulted in easy layups at the other end, extending their lead to 24, 83-59, with just over three minutes to play.
 
Despite the comfortable lead SEU continued to press on, posting their largest lead of the game, 27 points, with two and a half minutes remaining and cruised to the 86-65 final.
 
ASHTON SPEARS led with 22 points on 7-18 shooting, 5-8 in the second half, to lead the Hilltoppers. COREY SHERVILL added 17 points and DORIAN LOPEZ 16 with a team high eight rebounds.
 
The Hilltoppers return to action on February 23 at 2 pm in Dallas to face Dallas Baptist.