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HOUSTON – With the regular season winding down and the HBU men's basketball team fighting for a spot in the conference  tournament, the Huskies jumped out to a 20-2 lead and never looked back as they downed McNeese, 86-65, on Saturday evening inside of Sharp Gym and ended the night in a three-way tie for sixth place in the league standings.
 
Sophomore Ty Dalton continued his strong play of late, reaching 20 points for the third consecutive game. Dalton led all players with 20 points on 6-of-10 shooting, 3-of-6 from behind the arc, and added five assists and four rebounds. Senior Braxton Bonds posted his first double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds while dishing out four assists, recording three steals and not committing a single turnover.
 
Ian DuBose finished 5-of-10 from the floor, 2-of-4 from deep, to add 14 points with three assists and three steals while Edward Hardt finished with 10 points. Oliver Lynch-Daniels ended the night with nine points off the bench while Stephen O'Suji also finished with nine.
 
The Huskies (11-16, 7-9 SLC) scored the first five points with O'Suji knocking down a three and DuBose making a jumper before McNeese (9-20, 5-11 SLC) got on the board with a Jarren Greenwood layup. HBU then scored the next 15 points to lead 20-2 with 12:57 left in the half. The Cowboys were able to get as close as 13 after a pair of baskets at the 5:19 mark but HBU countered with an 18-5 run and took a 47-26 lead into halftime.
 
The closest McNeese got in the second half was 13 and the score stood at 65-48 with 9:27 to go. The Huskies went on a 17-6 run capped by a fast break dunk by DuBose with an assist from Qon Murphy off a steal with 4:35 on the clock to go ahead 82-54 for their largest lead of the game.
 
HBU shot 58.6 percent (35-of-58) from the floor for its best shooting performance in a conference game this season. The Huskies were 47.1 percent (8-of-17) from beyond the arc and out-rebounded the Cowboys 39-25.
 
McNeese finished the night shooting 36.2 percent (21-of-58) from the field. Junior Sha'markus Kennedy led the Cowboys with a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds while adding four blocked shots.
 
With just two dates of conference games left in the season, the Huskies are tied in sixth place with Stephen F. Austin and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Central Arkansas and Northwestern State sit just one game back.
 
HBU will wrap up the home portion of its 2018-19 schedule on Wednesday, Mar. 6, evening inside Sharp Gym when the Huskies host Incarnate Word for Senior Night with tip-off set for 7:00 p.m.