DALLAS â€" The Texas Lutheran men's basketball team got 25 points from Garrett Wilkins on its way to a tight 69-67 road win over Dallas Christian on Monday night.
 
The Bulldogs struggled to break away from the Crusaders all game, but eventually built a 10-point lead with under four minutes to play and held on to capture their second road win of the season, already exceeding their total from last year.
 
The win improved Texas Lutheran's record to 4-2 on the year and ran its early-season winning streak to three games. The loss dropped Dallas Christian to 1-7.
 
Wilkins (Austin, Texas) was a big reason for the win after the junior guard poured in a game-high 25 points. He was efficient all night, shooting 11-of-15 from the field and making both his free throw attempts to pace the Bulldogs.
 
His first-half scoring was especially crucial for TLU as his 14 points in the first half were almost half of the 31 the Bulldogs scored in the opening 20 minutes.
 
Close games are often decided by which team does the little things the best and that edge also went the Bulldogs' way. The big difference came at the free throw line where the Bulldogs nearly matched the Crusaders' free throw total despite shooting 26 fewer shots. Dallas Christian shot just 37.2 percent (16-of-43) from the charity stripe while the Bulldogs finished 12-of-17 (70.6%). The Crusaders shot better from the three-point line (37.5%) than they did from the free throw stripe.
 
Behind Wilkins' outstanding effort the Bulldogs finished with 43.5 percent shooting from the field while holding the Crusaders to 35 percent.
 
One of the things that did keep Dallas Christian in the game was its work on the offensive glass, recording 20 offensive rebounds and scoring 18 second-chance points. The Crusaders held a 47-44 rebounding advantage, marking the first time the Bulldogs have been out-rebounded since their season-opening loss to St. Mary's.
 
Along with Wilkins, TLU was paced by freshman Jordan Kouremetis (San Antonio, Texas) and Thomas Verm (Sealy, Texas). Kouremetis scored 14 points while Verm added 11 points and seven rebounds. All 11 of Verm's points came in the second half.
 
The first half was a back-and-forth affair with neither team able to build a lead larger than four. The Bulldogs eventually went into the halftime locker room with a one-point advantage after Kouremetis hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer. The freshman knocked two of the Bulldogs' three 3-pointers on the night.
 
The Crusaders came out of the locker room and built a 44-39 lead with just under 13 minutes to go in the game. That's when the Bulldogs began to take control fighting back to tie it up with six-and-a-half minutes to go. After tying it up, they scored nine straight points to take a commanding lead with 4:21 left. Verm keyed the run, scoring six of those nine points.
 
Despite a couple of late threes to cut the lead, the Bulldogs never trailed again and were able to secure the win.
 
The two teams will match back up in less than a week, except this time the Bulldogs will host Dallas Christian. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7 inside Memorial Gymnasium. Live stats and video will be available via TLUBulldogs.com.