FARMERS BRANCH, Texas – The Dallas Christian College men's basketball team erased an 11-point halftime deficit and claimed its second straight home overtime victory in the past week and a half by winning 94-90 over Texas Christian College on Wednesday night. The Crusaders drilled eight of their 13 three-pointers in the second half. They also swiped nine steals in that frame alone to help Texas Christian to 14 turnovers in that 20-minute duration. Overall DCC had 15 steals and committed 11 fewer turnovers (25-14).

Texas Christian still shot 60 percent from the field that second half and were able to make shots when necessary in crunch time to keep the pressure on the home team to keep up the momentum after rallying from down as many as 21 late in the opening stanza.

Micah Tucker and Moses Compton, who had the heroics down the stretch in regulation to get the Crusaders to this position were their only overtime scorers with five and four points, respectively. The big play from Compton occurred with 42 seconds remaining in the second. The junior from Houston, Texas, lined up a corner three-point shot on the left side in front of DCC's bench and netted the trey to make it 85-all. Tucker would force a steal by knocking the ball loose just past mid-court and dove for the loose ball and had the basketball IQ to signal a timeout. The Crusaders had the ball on the last possession with no shot clock, but a three-point attempt was off the mark.

The Crusaders remained perfect in overtime with their third such contest at home. It took nearly two minutes to score the first DCC points, but it was a Compton trey that lifted Dallas Christian up for good at 88-87. Tucker followed an offensive foul by the Wolfpack, which by the way was taken by Compton, with a trifecta of his own to make it 91-87. Javonte Valdez assisted both three-pointers.

A tough foul gave the Wolfpack three shot attempts at the free throw line. Jamie Spivey hit the trio of free throws to pull within one. Compton split at the free throw line next and then kept up that defensive pressure as the guests were held without a made field in the extra period.

"I am extremely proud of our boys and the way they fought back, Head Coach Dwight Coleman stated. "We have had some really tough losses this year where we haven't fought back or that we have done it but not gotten over the deficit. To come back from an early 20-point deficit was huge, especially in the facet that we did it."

The first six minutes of the second half signaled the turnaround of this game. Trailing 60-46, Tucker hit a three-point shot. A 13-0 DCC run followed with three-pointers made by Tucker, Compton, and Nick Erves to stand out for the team and get within a point. Valdez knotted the score up a few minutes later at 62 with 9:27 to go. After several back-and-forth shots helped DCC get into a position with the lead, Versache Buchanan delivered a go-ahead three (78-75) and then following a steal would go to Tilyr Hobson who saw the pass to Jordan Chambers with a jump shot to make it a five-point difference.

Texas Christian had a sliver of light with consecutive three-pointers that pulled the team within one, 82-81. The Wolfpack went ahead with the next four points to grab an 85-82 lead Spivey had the leading layup and then Derrick Rice stole a ball and dunked on the break.

The Crusaders took a timeout and after a missed three would get the Wolfpack to turn the ball over. Compton nailed that tying three-pointer and the rest mentioned above at the beginning would close out the second half.

"This is our third overtime win which shows a lot of heart and grit," Coleman reflected. "Good experience for a young team with the oldest being two JUCO transfers that are juniors. One of them, Versache Buchanan, was in his first game starting came up huge for us hitting some timely shots and get some big stops."

DCC was led by Hobson with 20 points and shot an efficient 10-for-12 from the field. His rebounding total was eight with five on the defensive side. Behind the team leader was Buchanan in his team debut with 16 points. He had four trifectas. Erves tossed in 13 points to headline the bench that totaled 40 bench points. Chambers and Valez each had nine points. Chambers dished 10 assists. Daniels hauled down a personal-high 14 rebounds.

The team was 32-16 on fastbreak points this game and won the battle on boards with a 59-53 difference. The Crusaders shared the ball with 28 assists and got 40 points from the bench.

Shay Cornish was on a torrid shooting streak with 19 points in the first 10 minutes. He still finished with a game-high but it was just 23 total points. Spivey followed with 17 points as a quintet reached double-digits for Texas Christian College.

"Phenomenal effort by the guys after giving that kid [Cornish] 19 points in the first 10 minutes of the game…to hold him to five points the rest of the way was great," Coleman praised. "Hats off to Jalen Perez, Javonte Valdez, and Jordan Chambers."

"Chambers especially has really been huge for us of late, sacrificing some of his offensive production to get back on the defensive end," Coleman explained. "He took it upon himself to pick that kid up 94 feet and just take him out of the game which made a huge difference for us."  

Dallas Christian improved to 4-3 on the season.

The team is home this Friday and Saturday from and will take on Baptist Bible and Kansas Christian College. The Crusaders also are making up a matchup with Southwestern Adventist University on Monday, February 1.

Please be aware of our new basketball spectator policy that can be found on dccsports.com.