The loss snaps a three-game home winning streak for the Tigers, who dropped to 8-11 overall and 8-9 in conference play. ETBU entered the contest in third place in the American Southwest Conference East Division.
Texas-Tyler, which is ineligible to advance to the conference tournament due to its continued NCAA provisional status, improved to 10-10 overall and 10-7 in conference play. The victory was also the fourth in four tries for the Patriots over the Tigers since UTT began its basketball program last season.
Isom, still coming off the effects of the flu this week, was held to only 4 points in the first half and only played 12 minutes after picking up his third foul of the half. That foul came at the 9:07 mark of the half and the score tied at 16-16.
The Patriots took advantage of the absence of the league’s Player of the Year candidate, rolling off a 22-7 run that gave UTT a game-high 15-point lead, 38-23, with 1:37 to go before the half. Trailing 40-27 at the break, the Tigers stormed back with Isom pouring in 18 points in the second half before he was called for his fifth foul with 6:55 remaining.
At that point, the Tigers had cut the deficit to 64-54, but had cut the margin to 72-65 at the 2-minute mark. Trailing by 6, 73-67, ETBU’s Rodney Calhoun drained a 3-pointer to cut it to 73-70 with 1:14 remaining. Two free throws from UTT’s Brandon Weasby increased the lead back to 5, 75-70, with 1:06 to go.
Chris Isom hit a jumper on ETBU’s next trip to cut the lead to 75-72, with 36 seconds left. On the ensuing possession, Weasby appeared to get away with a travel on the left sideline but continued to the play and hit a layup to push the lead back to 5, 77-72, with 32 seconds left. Chris Isom drained two free throws to make it 77-74, but Patrick Branche answered for Tyler with pair of charity shots with 29 second left to make it 79-74.
Chris Isom’s 3-pointer with 12 second left banged off the rim, and Tyler was able to hold off ETBU’s charge the rest of the way.
Chris Isom led all scorers with 23 points and 11 rebounds, coming back from a tough night Thursday in which he only scored only 2 points in a 72-52 win over Texas-Dallas. Isom was 7-of-12 from the field and also 9-of-13 at the free-throw line.
Cedric Isom finished with 22 points and 7 rebounds to go along with 3 steals in a season-low 27 minutes of action. The junior guard enters the final two weeks of the regular season as the conference’s scoring leader at 23.0 points per game.
Senior Ronnie Lewis, drawing his second straight start, finished with 8 points and 6 boards, while Calhoun scored 7 points off the bench.
Weasby led Tyler with 22 points, including four 3-pointers, with Joe Henderson pumping in 19. Branche also finished with a double double of 14 points and 10 boards.