FARMERS BRANCH, Texas – The Dallas Christian College men's basketball team earned its first win of the season in its home opener by a final score of 96-85 in overtime versus Bacone College on Friday night. The Crusaders trailed by as many as 14 in the second half but used an 18-3 run to erase the deficit and grab a one-point lead. The Warriors (1-7) were limited to six players but were a strong competitor by responding with another stretch of points to be back up as many as five in the final three and a half minutes.  

It was the Crusaders that captured the momentum that featured two spectacular plays first on defense by Javonte Valdez with a block to prevent a layup and then Ja'Kyrie getting the ball to heave a long pass that set up Tyrone Auzenne for a thunderous open dunk to get the fans on their feet. That knotted things at 76 with 1:02 remaining in regulation. Both sides had a basket in the final minute to go to overtime, where it was all DCC with an 18-7 display in the five-minute span.

"Got to get him going, he got all the rebounds and I got to feed him," Robinson explained on teaming up with Auzenne. "Got to reward him for what he has been doing all game."

Auzenne said, "Just want to make sure I get our team something to get going energy wise."

Auzenne led the Crusaders with 17 points and rebounds for a double-double. He also tallied six of the team's 14 blocked shots. Robinson nearly had a double-double with 13 points and nine boards. The native of Dallas dished seven dimes to generate some big DCC points that eliminated a 43-39 halftime deficit. Reggie Daniels was the other Crusader to eclipse double figure in points with 11.

Auzenne was asked about his numbers and he said, "Just being consistent. It is a mindset thing. I got come out every game and know what I can put on the floor and what I can do for my team and keep that in my mind and motivate my game."

Robinson gave praise to first-year head coach Dwight Coleman for trusting him to play his game and lead the team. He goes out there every day and gives all that he has.

The Crusaders remained down four at the start of the second half but could not get the needed push to overcome the gap at first. Bacone was able to put together six straight points for the first double-digit advantage by either side on the night at 53-43.

That deficit swelled to 14 but Dallas Christian started chipping away as Valdez, who made his season debut, drained a three and then Tyjuan Battles followed a miss by Bacone with a layup to nip the score to single-digits again at 11:14. Kameron Fitzpatrick found Battles cutting for the assist, which the Crusaders boasted 26 of. Tilyr Hobson and Auzenne were part of a 6-2 swing as Hobson started with a pair of free throws and then had a jumper to make it 64-58 with just under 10 to play.

About two minutes later, the Crusaders got consecutive three-pointers by Ja'Kyrie Robinson and Micah Tucker, respectively, to go up 65-64 and cap a 7-0 surge. The Warriors' Jacoby Durant nailed a triple to immediately put his team up. The road team tallied the next seven points to make it 71-65. The last two points came on one-of-two free throw shooting from Dean Austin and Durant.

Bacone only shot a 29.5 field goal percentage but accumulated 24 points at the charity stripe compared to DCC's nine, which had a large part of its success.

With just under five, Auzenne split at the line then Robinson rebounded a missed three-point attempt by Bacone and found a streaking Brandon Kari for the fastbreak layup to cut the score to 71-68. After an answer by the Warriors for two points, over a minute passed without a basket for DCC until Robinson had a jumper at 2:57. Valdez came up with a block, which the Crusaders accumulated 10 in the second stanza alone, to get the ball back. Auzenne knocked down both free throws to pull within one. The Warriors had the next three points to go up 76-72. Robinson got a layup at 1:25 to slice the deficit in half and then was involved on the next play for the game-changing dunk.

Durant was good on a jumper with 37 seconds to put the guests up two. Robinson scored again 10 seconds later, and the Crusaders defense came up with a massive block by Auzenne on an Austin jumper for the go-ahead shot. Austin had one more chance to win things in the last three seconds but his shot clanked off.

"Our emphasis is on defense, so we wanted to start everything we do with defense," Auzenne responding on the team's play at the end of the second half and into overtime. "We made it a point to keep them out of the paint, especially #11, as best as we could and just lock that down and then just keep scoring offensively."

The Warriors were already down to five players heading to the extra period and the lack of depth caught up, as the Crusaders got a trey from Robinson to go up and the Crusaders scored seven of the first 10 points and never trailed the rest of the way. A 7-2 run extended the game to a 94-83 lead with 1:14 left, as Moses Compton started the surge scoring on a steal and assist from Brandon Kari. That scoring stretch ended on a steal by Robinson and then his assist to Jalen Perez finished up the DCC scoring.

"We were really motivated for the first win," Auzenne said. "We work hard every morning, every single day, we try to push everyone for the win."

When asked about the adjustments at the break trailing by four, Robinson discussed, "At halftime we all just bought in. Our coaches let us talk to each other without them being in there. We picked each other up in the locker room and just said just keep going they're going to start falling, we do this every day at 5 in the morning. Just got to get it done."

The Crusaders shot 44.3 percent overall from the field. Both teams made nine three-pointers. 16 players for the home squad made an appearance and 15 found the scoring column. DCC also had a 66-52 edge on rebounds.

Bacone was led with two players in double figures that eclipsed 30 points. LaCorian Ballard, who shot 50-percent (7-14) in the first half and totaled 22 points, would lead with 33. Durant followed with 30. The Warriors did benefit from 23 DCC turnovers with a 21-14 scoring edge off the miscues.

Dallas Christian returns to the road for two exhibition games against NCAA Division I opponents. The Crusaders are at Tarleton State at 7 p.m. on November 25 and McNeese State on December 2. The next home game and last one of 2020 will be Dec. 7 versus Texarkana College at 7:30 p.m.