SAN ANTONIO (Feb. 7, 2012) -- Mike Brown led the Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) men's basketball team to its 16th conference win Monday evening in Mabee Gymnasium. The Saints' 106-84 win against Huston-Tillotson University (HTU) pushed them to 19-4 overall and 16-1 in the Red River Athletic Conference.

The team is one-and-a-half games ahead of second-place LSU-Shreveport (15-3/17-6) and three games ahead of third-place Texas Wesleyan University (12-3/18-4). The University of St. Thomas is in fourth place with a 12-4 conference record.

After two failed 3-pointers, the Saints got on the board on a field goal by Marco Cooper (pictured at right). The Rams answered with nine quick points to lead 9-4. Junior guard Robert Martinez got the Saints on track with back-to-back 3-pointers to lead 10-9. The Saints continued to lead, but HTU was not going to give up easily. With 13 minutes remaining in the first period, the teams tied at 18 and again at 21. Martinez once again pushed the Saints back on track after a field goal that gave them the 23-21 lead. The team would increase that lead to 28 and the half ended with the Saints leading 60-38.

Half-time stats included the Saints' bench scoring 35 points, while HTU's bench contributed five. The Saints forced 19 turnovers, and gave up the ball nine times.

The second half belonged to Brown, a 6'6" junior forward from Houston, Texas. Josh Orta drove the ball down the court, heading straight to the basket, but passed it to Brown instead, who scooped it in to take the Saints to 77-50 with 14 minutes remaining in the game. Another alley-oop from Orta to Brown gave the Saints two more points and sent Brown to the free-throw line after being fouled. After a nine-point first half, Brown was at 20 points when he drove to the basket and connected on a reverse layup. He would go on to score four more points to lead the Saints to a 22-point win against the winless Rams. 

Brown finished with not only a career-high 26 points, but a career high field goals made (10), field goals attempted (18), free throws made (6), free throws attempted (7), total rebounds (9) and total steals (5).


Ricardo Zanini and Martinez added 14 points each, while Orta scored 12 points, and Lo'Ron Smith and AJ Govan (pictured at bottom right) finished with 11 points each. Orta had eight assists and two steals; Marcus Thompson (pictured at left) had nine assists.
 

OLLU shot 45 percent from the field including 33 percent from 3-point range, and 75 percent from the free-throw line. The team forced 36 turnovers while committing 18.

HTU shot 51 percent from the field, 44 percent from 3-point range and 44 percent from the free-throw line.  The Rams' lead scorer was Ronzelle Fort, who finished with 31 points.


The Saints will host Paul Quinn College on Thursday in Mabee Gymnasium. In the teams' previous matchup earlier this season, the Saints won 94-78. Paul Quinn is currently 6-11 in the conference and 7-16 overall.