ABILENE, Texas  — Since losing two of its top players two weeks ago nothing has come easy for the Hardin-Simmons' men's basketball team, but the Cowboys continue to find ways to win close American Southwest Conference games and continued that run on Thursday with an 82-78 win over Schreiner.

HSU has won three straight American Southwest Conference games and are now 12-6 overall and 9-3 in league play. Schreiner evened its record at 10-10 overall and 7-7 in conference action.

Neither team led by more than four points in a tightly-contested first half Andy Spears basket with :42 to play gave HSU a 38-36 lead at halftime.

The second half was played closely as well and HSU led 48-47 at the 14:28 mark then went on an 7-1 run to take its biggest lead of the game at 55-48 with 11:56 to play and after the teams traded buckets Schreiner then went on a 6-0 run to cut it back to a 57-56 deficit.

The Cowboys pushed the lead back to as many as six on three different occasions, the last being a 3-pointer by John Derr to make it 78-72 with 2:20 to play. Schreiner answered with a 6-1 run to cut the game to 79-78 with :33 to play.

Darius Singletary split a pair of free throws with :27 to play and then after Schreiner missed a pair of close in shots Andy Spears grabbed a rebound and hit a pair of free throws with :10 to play. Schreiner missed a 3-pointer and Singletary hit another free throw with :01 to play to set up the final score.

HSU shot 49.2 percent in the game and the Mountaineers hit 48.4 percent of their shots. HSU was 16-for22 at the foul line and it proved to be the difference as Schreiner was just 11-for-20 at the free throw line.

The Cowboys held a 39-32 advantage on the boards and had a 19-6 advantage in second chance points in the game. The game featured 11 ties and six lead changes.

Taylor led five Cowboys into double figures with 23 points. Darius Singletary added 20 points and nine rebounds off the bench. Andy Spears had 13 points and 13 rebounds, John Derr added 12 points and Bernard Stiggers had 10 points, five assists and four rebounds.

AJ Myres led Schreiner with 29 points and Travis Pflughaupt had 17 points and 12 rebounds. 

The Cowboys host Texas Lutheran on Saturday at 3 p.m.