The Howard Payne Yellow Jackets earned their fourth victory in the last five outings and pushed their record above .500 with a 106-80 triumph over the Southwestern Pirates Wednesday night at the Brownwood Coliseum.
The Yellow Jackets (5-4) – who picked up their first win of the season at Southwestern, 96-86, back on Nov. 12 – drained a school-record 23 three-pointers in 48 attempts (48 percent), shattering the previous record of 16 successful treys in a game.
HPU also sank 37 of 76 field goals overall (49 percent) en route to the victory, while Southwestern (0-6) hit 29 of 60 shots (48 percent). But the Yellow Jackets owned a 69-12 edge in three-point scoring, as the Pirates converted just four treys in 19 attempts.
Howard Payne raced out to a 50-34 halftime advantage and shot 44 percent for the floor in the first half, including 11 of 25 from three-point land. Southwestern, meanwhile converted just 1 of 8 treys in the initial half.
The Yellow Jackets’ long range percentage was even better in the second half as they sank 12 of 23 attempts from long range, compared to 3 of 11 for the Pirates.
Hudson Johnson knocked down seven treys and finished with a team-high 27 points for HPU, Carter Eddy contributed four three-pointers and tallied 18 points, Trey Jackson hit two from long range and tallied 17 points, ASC Player of the Week Armonie Ramey added a pair of threes and 16 points, and Ben Phillip also finished in double figures with 11 points and a trio of treys.
Also scoring for HPU were Mason McGowen with six points on a pair of three-pointers, while Carter May, Nathan Scott and Elijah Pickens each buried a trey for three points apiece, and Mario Perry chipped in two points, the only Yellow Jacket of the 10 that scored not to convert from long range.
Southwestern was led by Brock Luechtefeld with 31 points while Jared Robins was the only other Pirate in double figures with dozen points.
Howard Payne is back in action at 6 p.m. Saturday at Austin College, the first of two games between the two schools as the Kangaroos will visit Brownwood on Dec. 30.
