DALLAS, Texas – The Dallas Christian College men's basketball team battled No. 2 Arlington Baptist University to the end in a 103-94 setback on Tuesday night at home. The Crusaders trailed by three a team that has ranked in the top 3 of the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association since December 7 and were just short in a second half shootout that had 110 combined points.
Jairus Allen produced a monster game with a career-high and game-high 27 points and was a rebound shy of a double-double with nine. The freshman out of Marshall, Texas, led the Crusaders in playing time with 32 minutes and yielded a 10-for-16 field goal line, made both three-point attempts, and was a perfect 5-for-5 at the free throw line to lead the home team.
Tilyr Hobson was another big scorer for DCC with personal-bests in points (24) and rebounds (13) for a double-double. He went 11-for-18 on the floor shooting and dished two assists and picked off three steals.
Tyjuan Battles rounded out the trio of double-digit scorers with 10 points and distributed a team-high five assists. He garnered eight rebounds for third most on the squad.
Joseph Allen tossed in nine points and matched Hobson for a team-high three steals. The other Marshall, Texas, native that attended Marshall Christian Academy with his older brother Allen would shine again on protecting the rim with four blocks.
Jason Makayabo posted seven points to lead the reserves for DCC.
Both teams shot well with the Patriots hitting 48 percent and making seven treys. They also took care of business at the free throw line with a 24-for-30 effort. The Crusaders shot 44.3 percent overall and made nine treys. They were 15-for-19 at the charity stripe. Arlington Baptist was able to make work inside by scoring 54 points compared to 46 by DCC.
Da'Vione Stafford was a huge part of that with 26 points and 15 boards. He also had two assists and blocks. Mohamed Musa and Trey Ballard each contributed 21 points to give ABU three scorers with at least 20. A quintet would crack double figures in the points column.
Fastbreak points were equal at 14 and the Crusaders used a 23-19 edge on points off turnovers. ABU held a slight edge on second chance points, 25-19, and bench points, 28-20.
It took two minutes for the first basket to fall through, which was
Jairus Allen for a layup. Hobson got a dunk and Allen added another layup before Battles sank a trifecta to open a 9-3 lead in the first part of the game.
The Patriots gained their first lead of the night and were powered by a 14-2 run to rise up 17-11 at 12:23. The road team eventually reached a double-digit spread at 28-18. Down as many as 13 with 3:51 left before the break, the Crusaders scored five points from Makayabo and then Hobson snatched a steal and layup inside to reduce the gap to six (38-32). In the last minute or so,
Jairus Allen streaked for a fast layup on a pass from Battles. He knocked a triple to cut the score to 41-39 in the last minute. The 6-2 freshman ended the stanza with an impressive, contested three-pointer that banked in from the left side in front of ABU's bench.
In the second half it was a challenge to stay close. DCC knotted the score though on a trey from
Jordan Harris. His had followed a trey on the last DCC trip by fellow point guard
Jalen Perez. An old-fashioned three-point play by
Jairus Allen lifted DCC up 65-64. Two more free throws by Allen made it a three-point game with 11 and a half minutes to play. ABU's Darrell Green landed a triple to level the score again. Another trifecta lifted the Patriots. These teams followed a similar pattern of trading points and neither could get an extended gap. DCC never led by more than three points the rest of the way, although did so several times down the stretch.
Up 85-83, the Patriots evened things with two Ballard free throws and he would add a trifecta for the go-ahead field goal and then two more free throws to single-handily push seven straight points and control the lead the rest of the way.
Battles had one answer for DCC to nip the deficit at 90-88, but the last 2:11 minutes saw an 11-0 scoring swing highlight a 13-4 final surge for the Patriots, who improved to 5-7 and 3-0 in the regional play.
The Crusaders moved to 1-9 overall and are 1-3 against the region this year. This was the first NCCAA Regional Division opponent for the Crusaders.
Dallas Christian heads out for a big road trip that includes three stops in as many days. All three opponents visited DCC this year. Baptist Bible is Friday at 6 p.m., while another NCCAA Regional foe is Ozark Christian College on Saturday at 3 p.m. The weekend wraps up on Sunday at College of the Ozarks at 3 p.m.
"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."
