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HOUSTON – Sophomore Ian DuBose matched a career-high with 23 points and the HBU men's basketball team earned a hard-fought 75-72 victory over visiting Fordham in the team's home-opener inside Sharp Gym on Saturday night.
 
The Huskies (1-1) jumped out to an early 7-2 lead thanks to seven-straight points in the span of less than a minute. The HBU lead grew to eight at the 14:16 mark after a made Jackson Stent three-point but a seven-point run by Fordham (1-1-) pulled the Rams within one with just over 13 minutes left in the first half. The Huskies again pushed their lead up to seven, capped by a pair of Jalon Gates free throws, before Fordham embarked on an eight point run to regain the lead at the 7:59 mark.
 
Nick Honor gave the Rams their largest lead to that point with a three-pointer at the 4:45 mark but Stephen O'Suji responded with a three of his own and a minute later DuBose evened thigs up at 31-31 with a fast break layup. Both teams traded baskets at the end of the half but Ty Terry hit a three in the final minute to give Fordham a 41-36 lead at the intermission.
 
Honor opened the scoring in the second half with another trey for an eight-point Rams lead but a 10-point run for HBU, highlighted by a three followed by a fast break dunk by DuBose gave HBU a two-point advantage. The Huskies again built up a lead with Stent dropping in a layup off the glass on a breakaway after a Braxton Bonds steal to go ahead by 11 with 11:06 to play.
 
Over the ensuing four-plus minutes, the Rams held HBU scoreless and fought back to 62-61 lead with just under seven minutes remaining. The teams then traded buckets and at the 3:23 mark, Ivan Raut nailed a three to even the game at 67-67. Edward Hardt put HBU back in the lead with a layup off a nifty pass from Bonds with 2:25 on the clock and neither team managed to score until DuBose was fouled with 29 seconds on the clock and knocked down both free throws for a four-point lead. Both teams made their free throws to close out the game with DuBose's two with four seconds left pushing the lead to three with Honor's deep three at the buzzer falling off the mark.
 
DuBose was 8-of-10 from the field, including 3-of-4 from deep, to match his career-high with 23 points while also adding six rebounds, two assists and two steals. Oliver Lynch-Daniels added nine points and five assists to match a career-high while Bonds finished with six points, five rebounds and five assists. O'Suji scored a new career-high with eight points, hitting 2-of-3 from the floor. Collectively, HBU out-scored Fordham 32-to-14 in the paint and forced 18 turnovers while committing 16.
 
Fordham was led by Perry who was 6-of-8 from behind the arc and had 22 points while Honor added 14 points. As a team, HBU shot 48.1 percent (25-of-52) from the floor and 46.7 percent (7-of-15) from three. Fordham attempted 29 three-pointers, making 14 of them and was 24-of-57 (42.1 percent) from the field.
 
The Huskies will be in action again next Saturday, Nov. 17, when they visit the Badgers of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisc. with a 7:00 p.m. tip-off.