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HOUSTON – HBU took a one-point lead just before the half and then never trailed in the second half as the Huskies downed visiting Lamar, 80-75) in Southland Conference action on Saturday evening inside Sharp Gym.
 
Junior Pedro Castro paced the Huskies (4-13, 3-6 SLC) offensively with 21 points and fell just one rebound shy of a double-double, with nine. He knocked down 4-of-5 from three-point range and was 6-of-11 from the floor. Sophomore Myles Pierre scored 16 points off the bench with seven of those coming in the final two and a half minutes of the game. He was 5-of-9 from the field and 5-of-6 from the foul line.
 
Hunter Janacek finished with 14 points, connecting of 3-of-5 from deep, and matched a career-high with seven rebounds. Zach Iyeyemi ended the night 5-of-9 shooting for 13 points and also blocked a pair of shots. Ty Dalton gave the Huskies nine points off the bench and Jade Tse dished out a team-best five assists and set a new career-best on the boards with five rebounds.
 
HBU took the lead from the start and got out to a 14-8 advantage after a Castro three but the Cardinals 4-15, 2-8 SLC) responded with a 14-4 run to lead 22-18 at the 11:18 mark. The Huskies briefly went back ahead by one but Lamar came right back and took its largest lead of the game, 34-28, after a pair of Anderson Kopp free throws with 4:27 left in the half.
 
Over the next 2:24 of game-time the Huskies went on a 10-2 run with four points from Pierre and a pair of threes from Janacek and Castro to regain the lead. Lamar evened the score up at 38-38 with just under a minute left but a Tse free throw with four seconds remaining sent the teams to the locker rooms with HBU ahead 39-38.
 
After the teams traded buckets early in the second half the Huskies went on a 15-0 run with Iyeyemi and Castro contributing six and five points, respectively. HBU forced six turnovers during that five-minute stretch and led 56-40 with 13:02 on the clock. An Iyeyemi layup again put the Huskies ahead by 16, their largest lead of the game, with 9:37 left.
 
From there, HBU committed five turnovers in a six-minute stretch where the Cardinals out-scored the Huskies 18-4 and cut their deficit to just two, 67-65, with a little over three minutes to go. Pierre scored the game's next five points and HBU's next seven points with a pair of free throws at the 45 second mark staking the Huskies to a 74-66 lead. HBU then made enough free throws down the stretch to hold the Cardinals off despite Lamar's best efforts which got the Cardinals as close as four.
 
HBU shot a season-best 64.3 percent (9-of-14) from three and connected on 46.7 percent (28-of-60) from the floor. The Huskies also held a 39-35 advantage on the boards after losing the rebounding battle by 10 when the two teams met in Beaumont earlier this season.
 
Lamar shot 38.7 percent from the floor and was led by sophomore Anderson Kopp who finished with 17 points and six rebounds. Three of LU players scored in double-figures.
 
HBU is back at it on short rest this Monday, Feb. 15, when the Huskies travel to Corpus Christi, Texas to take on the TAMUCC Islander at 7:00 p.m. at the American Bank Center.