The UTD men’s basketball team made a big late run, defeating the Regis Rangers 86-71 Nov. 15 and grabbing its first home win of the season, improving to 2-1.
Coming into the game with a 1-1 record, the Comets started on the field blazing hot. The team hit its first six shots from outside the three-point line, including three three-pointers by guard Nick Donnelly and two three-pointers by guard Matthew Soto. With a little under ten minutes to go in the first half, the Comets had amassed a 31-16 advantage and seemed to be in complete control.
However, the Rangers would not go down quietly, immediately responding with a 9-0 run to cut the Comets’ lead down to six points. With four seconds left in the half, Rangers guard Eddy Egun hit a heavily-contested three pointer to bring the game to 45-42. In less than ten minutes, the Comets had gone from being comfortably in the driver’s seat to watching their lead almost fully evaporate.
The beginning of the second half led to more trouble, as two quick baskets by the Rangers put the Comets down by one point with 18 minutes and 30 seconds left in the game. It seemed as if momentum had completely shifted away from the Comets — but momentum in sports can change in an instant.
The Comets immediately took back the lead and stretched the advantage to as high as four points, before the Rangers ripped off a 7-1 run to take the lead at 55-53. After going back and forth for the next couple of minutes, the game sat at 59-58 with the Comets on top. They would then increase that lead to 69-64.
From then onward, the game was blown wide open. The Comets would hit back-to-back-to-back threes, including two from forward AJ Carter, bringing the game to 78-64 with just under three minutes to play. The lead would balloon to as high as 17, so the Comets’ fans could watch the remaining three minutes and change with no worry.
Donnelly led the team in scoring with 16 points, shooting 6-10 from the field and 4-6 from behind the arc. Carter, guard Kris White and guard Peyton Dulin were tied for the team lead in rebounds with four apiece. Soto led the team with four assists. In total, the Comets shot 31-52 from the field at 60.8% accuracy, 13-20 behind the three-point line at 65% and 11-15 from the free-throw line at 73.3%. The team racked up 29 rebounds, 23 assists to 14 turnovers, five blocks and eight steals.
The Comets played the second end of back-to-back games at home Nov. 16 at 3 p.m. against the Colorado School of Mines.