Houston Baptist beats Abilene Christian, 81-72, tie for 2nd

Mar 5, 2017, 02:06 pm

HOUSTON -- Atif Russell and Colter Lasher combined to score 38 points and Houston Baptist closed out its regular season with an 81-72 win over Abilene Christian Saturday night.

Houston Baptist (17-12, 12-6) finishes in a three-way tie with Stephen F. Austin and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for second place in the Southland Conference. The Islanders own the tiebreaker and claim the No. 2 seed. The Lumberjacks are the No. 3 seed and the Huskies the No. 4; both play quarterfinal-round games Thursday in Katy, Texas.

The Wildcats (13-16, 7-11) took a 33-30 lead at intermission but Reveal Chukwujekwu gave Houston Baptist the lead for good with his three-point play with 15:36 left.

Russell hit 7 of 8 from the field and knocked down all four 3-point attempts to finish with 20 points. Lasher hit 5 3-pointers and had 18 points. Chukwujekwu added 10 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

Jaren Lewis scored 23 points to lead Abilene Christian.