THE LEAD
The Dallas Baptist University Men's Basketball team defeated UA Fort Smith, 86-81, on Saturday afternoon at The Burg Center. Patrick Burke scored a season-high 29 points on 12-of-17 shooting and recorded nine rebounds and three assists in 38 minutes.

Boy Van Vliet and Myles Johnson joined Burke in double-digits with 14 and 11, respectively. The two provided sparks at the beginning and end of the game as Johnson connected on his first three field goal attempts, including two three pointers, and Vliet scored seven in the final minutes to secure the victory.

DBU raced out to an 18-6 lead through the first four and a half minutes as Burke and Johnson combined for 15 points. UAFS responded by connecting on their next four attempts to close the lead to 25-19 eight minutes into the game. The Patriots answered with an 18-9 run over the next six minutes, led by 10 points from Burke. After DBU built a game-high 16 point lead, the Lions made their next five shots to go into halftime down just 53-47.

Burke hit his first three shots of the second half, providing all of the Patriots' offense in the first four minutes as DBU held onto a 59-57 lead. As both teams suffered a cold shooting run over the next two minutes, Carter Brown snapped the drought with a three-pointer from the corner that gave the Patriots a 62-57 lead. DBU continued their hot shooting with three straight field goals made to maintain a 70-65 lead, highlighted by a Burke layup giving him a new season-high point total (29).

Following a Myles Johnson three-pointer, UAFS rattled off a 9-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 74-73 with 4:19 remaining. Jordan Pratt responded with a shot from beyond the arc of his own to regain the lead at 76-74. Boy Van Vliet scored the team's next seven points as the Patriots took an 83-79 lead with 22 seconds to play. 

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
 - After starting the season 0-5 in games decided by less than 10 points, DBU has now won two games in a row by less than 10 points.
 - The schools avoided going to overtime in Dallas for the first time in four meetings.
 - DBU out-rebounded UAFS, 29-28, despite the Lions leading the conference in rebounding margin.

COACH BLAKE FLICKNER - ON THE TEAM RESPONDING TO CHANGES IN THE SYSTEM
"It feels really good. We've had to mix things up and change things. I feel like we've had to make more adjustments than I would like, but the guys have responded well. They've stepped up and made the plays they needed to."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
7 - Burke, the Heartland Conference leader in field goal percentage (.690), topped 70 percent shooting for the seventh time this season (.706).
24 - The Patriots registered 24 assists on Saturday, the most since their season-high 32 assists vs. Baptist Bible College on December 2, 2016.
81 - The 81 points allowed by DBU are the most since the Patriots' second game of the season, a 90-81 loss to Colorado Christian.

UP NEXT
DBU hits the road to take on Newman at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 12, in Wichita, Kansas.