Men's Basketball Falls to McMurry in Heartbreaker

ABILENE, Texas -- Texas Lutheran men's basketball (0-2) fell to McMurry (2-0), 75-73, in a game that came down to the final moments. McMurry would make the game winner with seven seconds remaining while the Bulldogs would miss their opportunity to respond in the final seconds.

Texas Lutheran had a hot start Saturday evening - shooting 51.2% from the field in the first half - to take a 39-35 lead into halftime. In the second half, the War Hawks were able to rally as the Bulldogs struggled from the field - closing the game at a 32.5% clip, shooting 58.3% from the free throw line and eight-percent from deep. TLU led by as many as 13 points in the second half while the War Hawks never led by more than four points and only led for 3:09 of game time.

With the game tied 69-all with 2:09 remaining, DJ Ardoin (Houston/Pearland) drilled two free throws to give TLU a 71-69 lead. McMurry would tie the game 71-all with 50 seconds left. Mason Wallace (San Antonio/Judson) would give TLU a 73-72 lead behind two free throws with 18 seconds left before a War Hawk layup with seven seconds left would prove to be the difference.

Wallace and Easton Allen (New Braunfels/Marion) and led TLU with 16 points each. The 16 points mark a career-high for Allen while grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds, matching his career-high set a season ago. DJ Ardoin had 11 points and nine rebounds off the bench for the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs finished the game shooting 40.8% (29-of-71) and made just 6-of-25 three-pointers (24%). TLU was 9-of-15 from the free throw line (60%).

TLU returns to Seguin on Wednesday, Nov. 15, for their home opener against No. 15 Mary Hardin-Baylor. Tip-off is set for 6 PM at Memorial Gymnasium with the crowd theme of a "Black Out." The game will be streamed on TLU+. All streaming and live stats links will be available on tlubulldogs.com.

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