HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The Dallas Christian College men's basketball team dropped its road contest at No. 6 Champion Christian College on Friday evening. A 13-point halftime deficit was too much of a hole to climb out of.
Erves was the team-leading scorer again with 18 points. He matched a team-high for steals with four total. Perez also had that amount of swipes to go with eight points.
Jairus Allen tossed 15 points for the team's other double-digit scorer.
Tyjuan Battles hauled down a team-high eight rebounds.
With 13:49 left in the opening half,
Tilyr Hobson cut the deficit to 12-9 after
Jalen Perez made a steal to create the opportunity. Unfortunately, a seven-point string of points lifted Champion Christian to an eventual 22-11 lead. DCC would cut the score to as close to four points in the first half, but the Tigers would grab a 50-37 halftime lead.
Champion pushed the lead to 22 (61-39) early in the second half, but DCC fought back with six straight points. After allowing the lead to stretch back to near 20, the Crusaders eventually got the gap slashed to 11 (79-68) on a three by Battles. That was the closest DCC would cut the margin though, as the team fell to 0-2 on the opening NCCAA Southwest Region road trip.
The Crusaders improved its shooting in the second stanza by going north of 50 percent with an 18-for-34 effort. That helped finish with a 45.1 percent clip overall. DCC would go 4-for-21 from three-point territory, while Champion made 15 treys. The Tigers shot a blistering 47.8 percent from the floor and 46.9 percent (15-32) from three-point land.
DCC won the turnover battle by forcing 24 to Champion and committing just 13.
Aryion Williams and Braylon Hawkins paced the Tigers offense with a combined 51 points, and Hawkins notched a double-double with 10 boards in addition to his 25 points. Malik Laurent brought down a game-high 12 rebounds and nearly had a double-double with eight points.
"Dallas Christian educates and mentors students to be people of influence engaging in their calling to the work of Christ in the church and in the world."
