The Howard Payne men’s basketball team dropped an 88-75 non-conference game to Manchester College Wednesday evening. 

The Yellow Jackets were out-rebounded 54-35 and only got 15 free-throw attempts to Manchester College’s 45. 

Howard Payne gained a 14-9 lead in the opening minutes on a jumper by Brandon Irwin. Manchester chipped away at HPU’s lead and with 8:23 left in the half went on a 12-0 run to gain a 23-34 advantage. 

With Manchester holding a 42-33 halftime lead, the Jackets needed to battle hard in the second half. Howard Payne was unable to cut the Manchester lead to anything less than six points in the second and Manchester posted the 88-75 win.

HPU’s Brandon Irwin led scorers with a career high 26 points. Keith Perry and Henry Valladares each added 10 points. Zane Smith had 6 assists. 

Manchester was led by Mitch Schaefer with 17 points followed by Nathan Ferch with 13. 

The Yellow Jackets fall to 2-8 overall while Manchester improves to 7-4 on the year. Howard Payne will remain in Indiana and play on January 2nd against Anderson University.