AUSTIN, Texas – St. Edward's men's basketball faded in the second half, struggling from the free-throw line, 3-point line, and with turnovers in an 85-74 loss to the No. 6-ranked Dallas Baptist Patriots.
 
Playing without its starting center and leading scorer, LEWIS ROWE, St. Edward's played nationally-ranked Dallas Baptist to a standstill in the first half, with seven ties and 12 lead changes.
 
Dallas Baptist guard Ricky Lujan hit a corner 3-pointer on the game's opening possession, but St. Edward's scored seven unanswered points, including a corner 3-pointer and turnaround jumper from MASON COURTNEY. 
 
The Patriots got a quick four-point scoring burst from Cameron Kahn and 3-pointers from Lujan, Drew Calderon, and Isaac Bullard to take the lead. 
 
JAMISON KAY steadied the Hilltoppers with a driving layup and three free throws, and LATIEK BRISCOE came off the bench for a layup and dunk, then found CONOR MCMANUS for an open 3-pointer to retake the lead at 19-18. 
 
Dallas Baptist picked up its intensity and reeled off a 12-2 run, making five of six shots over four minutes, capped off by a Lujan floater for the 28-21 lead. 
 
LUCA BAREI ended the run by breaking free for a fastbreak layup, faking towards the inbounder against a press, then cutting back for the long outlet pass and layup. Then, Barei drew a charge on Jaden Shelvin, and Kay kept the momentum by finding SAM MCKINNEY cutting backdoor along the baseline for an emphatic dunk. St. Edward's forced Shelvin into another turnover and Kay scored on an offensive rebound and putback to pull within three at 30-27. 
 
First-year forward Travan Williams provided energy off the bench, scoring on an offensive rebound through traffic and forcing a turnover on the press by deflecting a pass off a Patriot. St. Edward's found creative ways to deal with the Patriot press, using its aggression to slip behind the lines of defense and having Kay function as a pressure release valve and ball handler out of the frontcourt. 
 
That allowed Ramos to find his rhythm offensively, turning the rest of the first half into an all-conference shootout between him and his DBU counterpart, Lujan. Ramos aggressively drove to the rim, hitting 4-for-5 from the field and all five free-throw attempts for 13 points. Lujan was 5-for-8 from the field for 11. 
 
It was enough to keep both teams tied at 41 in the closing seconds of the first half until Ramos blocked a Trevor Frank 3-point attempt, but Frank picked off Williams's hurried outlet pass and hit a pull-up jumper at the buzzer for the 43-41 lead. 
 
Dallas Baptist carried the momentum into the second half, recording a steal and layup on the first possession and scoring the first six points after the break. St. Edward's coughed the ball up four times over the first seven minutes, feeding a 21-11 Dallas Baptist run on 10-for-14 shooting to go up 64-52. 
 
The Hilltoppers committed 12 second-half turnovers to nine assists and compounded those issues by shooting 8-for-17 from the free-throw line and 3-for-14 from the 3-point line. 
 
Kahn led the DBU charge with 12 of his 16 points in the second half, shooting 5-for-7 after the break. Lujan added nine points, and Shelvin scored seven. Kay and McKinney combined for 17 second-half points on 6-for-11 shooting, but the Hilltoppers shot just 11-for-29 (37.9 percent) after the break. 
 
Kay led St. Edward's with 17 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Ramos scored 15 points, eight rebounds, three assists, and two blocks, and Briscoe added 10 off the bench. Lujan led all scorers with 20 points, and Justin Haire added 12 points off the bench. 
 
St. Edward's drops to 14-10 with a 7-7 conference record. The Hilltoppers will host UT Tyler on Saturday at 3:00 p.m.