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HOUSTON – HBU made it five-in-a-row on Saturday evening in Sharp Gym, stepping out of Southland Conference play to defeat Randall 92-78.
The Huskies (13-12) got a career-high 13 points from freshman
Jalon Gates who knocked down 4-of-10 from three-point range and was 1-of-2 from the free throw line.
Josh Ibarra filled up the stat sheet, finishing with a team-best 17 points to go along with 10 rebounds, a career-high five assists and five blocked shots. His five blocked shots moved him into sixth on the HBU all-time career blocked shots list with 110.
Senior
Reveal Chukwujekwu posted his ninth double-double of the season, totaling 15 points and matching a career-high with 14 rebounds. He also dished out five assists, matching his career-best.
Braxton Bonds finished the night with 12 points, seven assists and six rebounds while
Colter Lasher added 11 and
Alex Fountain had 10.
Randall (12-10) got 18-point efforts from Trey Sneed and Xavier Hunter while Kashus Lyons and Brandon Askew each added nine. The Saints shot 42.3 percent (30-of-71) for the game while the Huskies shot at a 48.1 percent (37-of-77) clip. HBU owned a 51-33 advantage on the boards.
The Saints used an early 10-0 run to take a 14-4 lead but HBU quickly cut that back down to two, trailing 16-14 at the 12:45 mark. Eight straight points by Randall in a one minute, twenty-five second span again made it a 10 point game. Three consecutive threes, one from Fountain and two from Gates, cut things to 24-23 with Randall pushing the lead back to five with 8:17 remaining on an Isaac Bowles dunk The Huskies then closed out the half by out-scoring Randall 29-7 over the final 7:50 for a 52-35 halftime lead.
Randall started chipping away at the HBU lead in the second half, eventually cutting it as low as seven on a Sneed three, making it 66-59 at the 11:50 mark. A nine-point burst, finished by a Lasher trey, put the Huskies back up by 16. Again, the Saints fought back down to double-digits with a Hunter three with 6:57 remaining, bringing the score to 77-68. Ibarra came back with a second-chance layup to put HBU ahead by double-digits for the remainder of the game.
HBU jumps back into Southland action, heading to Lake Charles, La. to take on McNeese at 7:00 p.m. at the Burton Coliseum. The Huskies beat the Cowboys 60-49 in Sharp Gym earlier this season.