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SAN MARCOS, Texas – Sophomore
Ian DuBose enjoyed the first 30-point game of his career and senior
Edward Hardt scored a career-best 18 but HBU men's basketball dropped a 90-80 decision to Texas State inside Strahan Arena on Saturday afternoon.
HBU (2-5) jumped out to a 4-0 lead behind baskets from
Ian DuBose and
Stephen O'Suji but back-to-back Bobcat (9-1) threes made it a 6-4 game.
Edward Hardt answered with a layup and DuBose sank a pair of free throws to again give the Huskies the lead, 8-6. Texas State then held the Huskies scoreless for more than five minutes during a nine-point run that left HBU trailing, 15-8.
Hardt gave the Huskies five consecutive points with a pair of layups and a free throw, making it a 19-17 game with 7:23 left in the half. After a DuBose layup brought HBU within three at the 5:59 mark, Texas State sandwiched a pair of six-point runs around an O'Suji trey and pushed its lead to 15, 40-25, on an Eric Terry jumper at the buzzer.
In the second half, Nijal Pearson knocked down a mid-range jumper on the opening possession but the Huskies answered with two threes from DuBose and a pair of free throws by
Philip McKenzie that cut the HBU deficit to nine less than two minutes in. Texas State responded with a pair of layups to go back ahead by 13 but a six-point Husky run was punctuated by a huge put-back dunk by DuBose to make it 46-39 before the first media timeout.
Hardt then made one of two at the charity stripe and DuBose buried another jumper to bring the Husky run to nine and the score to 46-42. 33 seconds later,
Oliver Lynch-Daniels hit a three for his first points of the game and pulled HBU within three but Tre Nottingham and Pearson hit back-to-back threes to again make it a nine-point game.
A Bonds layup with 10:45 on the clock got the Huskies within five but the Bobcats scored the next seven points, all on free throws, to lead by 12 just over a minute later. A pair of DuBose free throws at the 7:08 mark made it a nine-point game but the Bobcats again went ahead by double-digits until a Hardt layup with 16 seconds left cut the Bobcat lead to eight.
DuBose's 31 points bested his previous career-best of 23 by eight and it was the first time an HBU player reached 31 points since
Josh Ibarra did it against Detroit Mercy early in the 2017-18 season. DuBose finished 8-of-14 from the field, 3-of-4 from deep and 12-of-13 from the charity stripe. The sophomore also added nine rebounds, four assists and three steals. Hardt also set a new career-high in scoring with 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting while also pulling down six rebounds.
McKenzie had a career-game on the boards, pulling down 10 rebounds and just missing out on his first career double-double with nine points. O'Suji also scored nine for the Huskies. HBU shot 42.6 percent (23-of-54) from the field, 33.3 percent (7-of-21) from three and 77.1 percent (27-of-35) from the free throw line. Both teams had 33 rebounds while HBU committed 13 turnovers to 12 for Texas State.
Alonzo Sule led Texas State with 23 points off the bench and added 10 rebounds for a double-double. The Bobcats were 30-of-57 (52.6 percent) from the field and knocked down 24-of-28 (85.7 percent) from the charity stripe.
The Huskies host Arlington Baptist at home inside Sharp Gym on Friday, Dec. 14, with a 7:00 p.m. tip-off.