TYLER, TEXAS – #25 UT Tyler dominated defensively and rebounded after their first loss of the 201-22 season in a 77-54 win over Oklahoma Christian on Saturday afternoon inside the Herrington Patriot Center.
 
The win pushes the Patriots to 8-1 on the year and righted the ship on the defensive end of the floor for UT Tyler as they limited Oklahoma Christian to just 54 points and a 34.6 percent (18-of-52) shooting percentage from the floor. The Patriots gained the lead 31 seconds into the game and never relinquished the advantage, building up a 27-point lead at the 73-46 mark with 2:38 left in the ballgame.
 
Graduate student Micah Fuller led the Patriots once again with 15 points for the night with a trio of three-point makes and six free throws. Junior Milan Szabo went for 12 points to score in double-digit figures for the third straight contest, while Jaxon Edelmayer (11) and Patrick Samoura (10) each posted 10 or more points.
 
The Patriots shot 49.0 percent (25-for-51) as a unit and dominated the rebounding effort with 37 boards while limiting Oklahoma Christian to just 23 rebounds for the entirety of the contest. Samoura led the way on the glass for UT Tyler with nine rebounds, narrowly missing out on the double-double with his 10 points, while Szabo added eight boards to the total.
 
11 Patriots recorded points in the game on a night in which UT Tyler generated 17 turnovers and scored 36 of their points in the paint.
 
UT Tyler was efficient in the opening 20 minutes of play, connecting on 13-of-24 (54.1 percent) in the opening half to build a 31-21 halftime lead. It took the Patriots less than 10 minutes to extend their lead to double digits with a 14-4 run to open the game, an advantage that would extend to as many as 12 on three different occasions throughout the half.
 
A 17-8 run to open the second half of play broke open the game coming out of the halftime break, and put UT Tyler ahead 48-29 with 14:11 remaining on the clock. Oklahoma Christian got the advantage down to less than 15 points with at 54-40 with 7:21 left, but had no answer for the defensive pressure for the Patriots and quickly fell back behind by a substantial margin at 73-46 at the 2:38 mark.
 
The impressive outing for the Patriots on Saturday comes on the heel of the team's first loss of the season on Thursday night by an 85-72 final tally to UAFS. The weekend 1-1 split wraps up the stretch of four games against Lone Star Conference opponents marked as non-conference games ahead of the official LSC openers on Dec. 31^st and Jan. 2^nd.
 
Those two games will come after the mandatory NCAA seven-day break for the Christmas holiday and will take place back inside the friendly confines of the Herrington Patriot Center.
 
Szabo's 12 points in support of Fuller's 15-point effort came on just seven shots as he went 5-of-7 from the field and added two of the 22 free-throw makes for the Patriots on the night. UT Tyler was spectacular from the free-throw line, making those 22 points on just 23 attempts from the charity stripe.
 
Game time for the LSC opener for the Patriots on New Years Eve is set for a 4 p.m. start against DBU. Sunday's game against Midwestern State is also slated for a 4 p.m. start.