Patriots tip-off season with three wins

The University’s men’s basketball team is off to the best start in program history.

The Patriots opened the season with an 87-55 victory over Southwestern Adventist last Monday.

The winning continued Friday and Saturday in the Fred Jacoby I-20 Tip-off Classic at the Herrington Patriot Center.

The Patriots defeated Jarvis Christian 88-76 Friday and Howard Payne 65-58 Saturday.

The Patriots made the first basket and held the lead the remainder of the game against Southwestern Adventist.

Coach Kenny Bizot showed off his team’s depth by playing 13 players in the first half ­—nine scored.

Good ball movement led to six three-point shots being made in the first half. Neal Welch led the team with three shots made behind the arch.

The Patriots also displayed good defense in the first half. They held the SAU to seven points in the final seven minutes of the half.

In the second half, the Patriots hit the floor running outscoring Southwestern 23-10 in the first 10 minutes.

Hakeem Kareem and Welch led the team in that time span with six points each.

The Patriots bench became more involved later in the game. T.J. Shaw scored all eight of his points in the final six minutes.

Welch had a game high 18 points. Kareem and Josh Twine joined Welch in double figures with 12 and 10 points respectfully.

Twine led both teams with nine rebounds. The Patriots out rebounded Southwestern 54-28 in the game, and shot an astonishing 47.3 percent from the floor.

Southwestern Adventist is playing basketball for the first time since 2002

The Bulldogs drew first blood with the opening basket, but that would be their only lead of the game.

The Patriots traveled down the court five consecutive times before they would miss their first basket.

Patriots’ Dexter McMarion (white jersey) works his way around Mahershal Simonet of Jarvis Christian (blue jersey) on Friday night. The Patriots defeated the Bulldogs 88-76. Photo by Libby Moore.

Jarvis Christian tried to muscle their way back into the lead by outing their bigger guys in the game.

That did not stop the Patriots as Kareem crashed the boards and almost out rebounded the whole Jarvis Christian team.

Aggressive guard play did the most damage for the Patriots. Kevin Murray and Travan Porchia led the Patriots through the Bulldog’s defense.

Porchia hit a buzzer beater after his one rebound to take the Patriots into the locker room with a 48-39 lead.

The Bulldogs came back out strong in the second half and cut the Patriots’ lead to four on a 5-0 run.

“I think they just caught us with a good hit and we weren’t ready for it,” Kareem said, “but luckily we recovered fast.”

“Recovering fast” would be an understatement. The Patriots responded with an 8-0 run later in the half. Brandon Levine started the run with a half-court steal, followed by an emphatic dunk.

The Patriots’ aggressive play heated up. Levine missed a jumper only to be grabbed and slammed in by Murray, giving the Patriots’ their largest lead.

The Patriots battled through one more Jarvis Christian surge. The Bulldogs went on another big run to try to get back into the game.
Johnson, Kareem, and Dexter McMarion however, silenced the Bulldogs and sealed the 88-76 victory.

Kareem set a school record for most rebounds in a single game with 20.

Welch, Murray, and Porchia led the Patriots in scoring and accounted for 45 of the team’s points shooting a combined 16-26 from the field.
Jarvis Christian’s Justian Hamilton led all scorers with 23 points.

The Patriots shot 44 percent from the floor in the game—53.3 percent in the second half.

It is the first Patriot win against Jarvis Christian in school history.

The Patriots met their toughest challenge Saturday against Howard Payne.

After pulling ahead to an early 11-5 lead, Howard Payne’s Henry Valladares hit back-to-back threes to tie the game.

The game remained close with both teams holding a lead at some point during the first half. The Patriots broke through in the final six minutes, outscoring Howard Payne 11-3 and taking a 31-26 lead at halftime.

McMarion extended the Patriots’ lead early in the second half with five points in three minutes, but the Yellow Jackets fought back to tie the game with 11 minutes remaining.

McMarion caught fire again a minute later, scoring another five points in two minutes.

The Yellow Jackets pushed within two points with four minutes remaining, but the Patriots picked up their defense and put the game away on a three from Johnson at the one-minute mark.

Johnson led all players with 17 points and four assists. McMarion followed closely behind with 16 points.

“I thought we were a little mentally fatigued,” coach Bizot said. “Howard Payne came out and played physical and had a great game plan.

“We didn’t meet that challenge for the most part, but did enough to get the win.”

The Patriots had their worst shooting percentage of the season with 39.7.

Through the Patriots’ first three games, Kareem leads the team with 13 points and 11.7 rebounds a game.

Michael Johnson leads the team in assist and steals with 4.3 a game in each category.

The Patriots travel to Hawkins to close out the season series with  Jarvis Christian on Tuesday.

They will returning home on Saturday and Monday to face Texas Lutheran and Schreiner.

The Patriots will hit the road in December to face Hardin-Simmons and McMurry in Abilene, and Southwestern Adventist in Keene.