SEGUIN, Texas â€" East Texas Baptist stretched a four-point halftime lead to 12 and held off a Texas Lutheran second-half rally to post an 80-73 non-conference win Saturday in TLU's Memorial Gymnasium.
 
ETBU, out of the American Southwest Conference, pushed its record to 4-0.
 
TLU, from the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, dropped to 2-5 and had its two-game win streak snapped.
 
TLU's Jordan Kouremetis (San Antonio/O'Connor) cut the ETBU lead down to five, 67-62, after a three-pointer with 4:38 to play. The three capped a 15-8 TLU run after the Tigers took their largest lead, 12 points.
 
ETBU responded with a three-point play from center Jamil Samuel and a three-pointer from Dylan Augustine to stretch the lead back to 12 with only 1:51 remaining.
 
Augustine, a 5-foot-11 sophomore guard, came off the Tigers' bench to hit seven shots, four of them three-pointers. He scored 19 points and added four rebounds and four assists.
 
Samuel, the 6-7 junior, chipped in 16 points, eight rebounds, six blocks and five assists.
 
Justin Felicia was the only other Tiger in double figures, but three other ETBU players had at least eight. Felicia, a 6-7 senior, scored 10 and grabbed five rebounds.
 
Kouremetis led TLU with 17 points. The sophomore guard also collected five rebounds.
 
Bulldog senior forward Donte McGee (Victoria/Memorial/Texas A&M-Kingsville) posted a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. McGee also registered two blocks.
 
TLU sophomore point guard Sterling Holmes (San Antonio/Antonian/Richland) went 9-for-9 at the free throw line and ended the day with 16 points, four assists and three rebounds.
 
Senior guard Garrett Wilkins (Austin/Connally/Colorado Northwestern) pulled down six rebounds and dished out five assists.
 
The Bulldogs shot 37.1 percent from the field and 41.7 percent from the three-point line.
 
ETBU hit 42.6 percent of its shots, making three more field goals than TLU. The Tigers had 20 assists on their 26 made shots.
 
TLU turned the ball over 17 times and was out-scored 26-18 in the paint.
 
In the 89^th all-time meeting between TLU and ETBU, the Tigers won for the 46^th time and snapped a two-game losing streak to the Bulldogs.
 
TLU and ETBU played together in the old Big State and Heart of Texas conferences of the NAIA. The Tigers and Bulldogs also played in the ASC, of the NCAA Division III, until 2013. TLU joined the SCAC starting in the 2013-14 athletics seasons.
 
The Bulldogs have a 13-day break before returning to action with back-to-back contests at the Trinity University tournament in San Antonio. The Bulldogs face Anderson (Ind.) at 2 p.m. Dec. 19 and play Wheaton College (Ill.) at 4 p.m. Dec. 20.