Tiger Basketball To Open Season

BASKETBALL(W): MARSHALL, Texas (11/15/12) – A new era and style of basketball will be played starting on Friday, November 16th, for East Texas Baptist University in women’s basketball as Dustin Howard makes his collegiate coaching debut in the University of Dallas Classic. Howard is entering his first year at ETBU and this is his first collegiate head coaching position.

"I am so happy to be here at ETBU and it is definitely what God wants in our lives after we have prayed about it as a family,” says Howard. "This is a great place to be. You can put down roots here and it’s a nice place to raise a family and live and a great place to work.”

Howard has only had a month of practice before the season opens at the University of Dallas and has only been at ETBU since June putting his team together. He has brought in several new players for the program and will try to restore the program to where it was at when he was here as an assistant coach. He coached at ETBU in the early 2000s when the Tigers won an ASC East Division championship and had three straight winning seasons.

ETBU faces two teams that also struggled in 2011-12 in Austin College and the University of Dallas. Austin College went 4-21 last year and only averaged 53.7 points per game. The University of Dallas went 9-16 and averaged 65 points a game.

The games will be played at the University of Dallas with ETBU facing Austin College on Friday at 7:00 p.m. and host University of Dallas on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.



ETBU Opens New Season in Austin College Classic



BASKETBALL (M): MARSHALL, Texas (11/15/12) – Heading into his 12th straight year at East Texas Baptist and 18th overall as head coach, Bert West and the men’s basketball program open up the 2012-13 season this weekend in Sherman, Texas, at Austin College. ETBU is coming off a 14-12 year where they qualified for the ASC Tournament.

"It’s been exciting to watch our kids play. They have a great work ethic and will play to the end of the whistle. We have a young team but they are feisty and will push you straight to the end,” says head coach Bert West.

ETBU opens up the season at the Austin College Classic facing the University of Dallas on Friday at 6:00 p.m. followed by a 4:00 p.m. contest vs. host Austin College on Saturday. Season openers haven’t been took kind to West the past 11 years as he has a 4-7 record since returning to ETBU in 2001-02. This will be the second time in three years that ETBU opens up the season with the University of Dallas as they played them in 2010-11 taking the contest, 95-71. The University of Dallas went 7-19 last year averaging 63.8 points per game and they finished with a 5-11 record in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference. Austin College had a strong campaign last year with a 15-11 record posting an 11-5 mark in the SCAC. They finished averaging 65.5 points per game.

ETBU returns two of their top scorers in Jaron Joseph and J.D. Richardson. Joseph is the lone senior on the team averaging 12 points per game and sophomore Richardson adds 7.0 points per game and 4.2 rebounding average. Also returning are Monty Grays (6.3 ppg), Kerry McClahan (6.7 ppg), Erby Thompson (5.2 ppg), C.J. Jones (2.4 ppg), and Seth Powers (1.3 ppg). Newcomers include Jonas Chretien (Lake Charles, La.), Junior Mitchell (Marshall, Texas), Trevin Wilson (Lafayette, La.), Chris Collins (Allen, Texas), Justin Felicia (Atascocita, Texas), Eric Horton (Paris, Texas), Zach Rhodes (Rockwall, Texas), and Eddie Bird (Hackberry, La.).

Playing an exhibition last week against NCAA Division I Northwestern State, Mitchell and Joseph posted 15 points to lead the team while Felicia added 12 points. Jones posted eight points as Felicia led the team with seven rebounds.

The 2012-13 season will start on Friday as ETBU has a team put together to make a run for the American Southwest Conference championship. The games at Austin College can be heard on ETBUSportsnet on Friday and Saturday online with the game vs. Austin College on Saturday airing on KMHT ESPN 1450.