ABILENE – The Angelo State men's basketball team missed only five shots in the second half, shooting 76 percent on 21 attempts in a 73-70 non-conference win over McMurry University on Friday at the Kimbrell Arena.

The Rams (7-0) trailed by six at halftime, but stormed back in the second half to match the best start to a season in program history which was also accomplished by the 1981-82, 1993-94 and 2008-09 teams. Bryan Hammond led the Rams with 15 points on 6 of 6 shooting from the field, while Daniel Skinner had 12, Reggie Sutton 11 and Kenny Williams 10 points in a game with four double-figure scorers and eight Rams adding points to the effort.

Along with their impressive second-half shooting performance, the Rams limited McMurry (3-1) to 39 percent from the floor after the War Hawks had shot 58 percent in the first half to get out to a 34-28 advantage after the first 20 minutes of play. ASU outscored the War Hawks 36-26 in the paint and had a 23-12 advantage on points off the bench.

"I give McMurry all the credit in the first half," ASU head coach Chris Beard said. "They had a good game plan, and were doubling Kenny on different spots of the floor and were picking up the pressure. I felt like we got out-coached in the first half. We came out in the second half and made some adjustments and give our players the credit for following the instructions. I felt like we did a better job getting the ball inside in the second half."

The Rams and War Hawks will meet again at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at the Junell Center. ASU is 4-0 at home this season and is 32-19 all-time against McM after Friday's win.

Hammond, who has four double-figure games this season, also added three assists and two rebounds. He is averaging 11.1 points per game in his senior season, along with shooting 59 percent and leading the Rams with 31 assists (4.4 per game).

"I don't say this a lot, but I'm really starting to trust the kid," said Beard of Hammond. "We've talked about how we needed some backcourt players to trust and we are starting to trust him. Even when he makes a mistake, I look into his eyes and I think that he understands what he did. I think we have a chance to have a pretty good team if Bryan continues to develop."

Williams, who played for Beard last season at McMurry, led the Rams with six rebounds and secured a steal and hit a free throw in the final seconds of the game to seal the win. Omari Gudul added eight points and four rebounds with Ryan Marsh scoring seven and blocking two shots. Skinner, who has now scored in double-figures in six of the first seven games of the season, led the Rams with four assists, two steals and also grabbed five rebounds.

Alfred Perez led McMurry with 18 points, while Brandon Golden had 15 points and nine rebounds for the War Hawks who shot 5 of 10 from beyond the arc. ASU was limited to 2 of 8 shooting on 3-pointers with Tommy Woolridge and Thomas Brandsma knocking down the pair of 3-pointers. Brandsma, who played last season at McMurry as a freshman, finished the game with five points and two rebounds.

Angelo State trailed 38-36 before going on a 9-0 which was started by a pair of Hammond free throws to tie the game and then a jumper from the senior to give the Rams a 40-38 advantage. Williams added a jumper in the middle of the run before Hammond capped it to give ASU a 45-38 lead with 13 minutes to play.

Gudul pushed the Angelo State lead to 51-45 with a layup and free throw off an assist from Skinner before Skinner hit a layup as a response to a McMurry 3-pointer. The ASU 53-48 lead would be closed on by the War Hawks with a 7-0 to reclaim the lead capped by two free throws by Goff for a 55-53 lead. Gudul would stop the run with a jumper to square the game at 55-all with 8:11 remaining and Sutton would hit a pair of free throws to give the Rams a 57-55 lead with 7:29 remaining.

Woolridge hit the second 3-pointer of the game for the Rams with 5:52 remaining to give ASU a 63-57 lead. The shot followed a layup by Gudul and a free throw for a 6-0 ASU run. The run extended to 8-2 on a Sutton layup to give ASU a 65-59 lead with 5:12 to play.

Brandsma would extend ASU's lead to six in the final two minutes with a layup for a 72-66 lead, but McMurry's Goff hit another jumper to close to within four before Golden made it a 72-70 game with a pair of free throws for the War Hawks with 56 seconds to play.

The Rams trailed 34-28 at halftime with the War Hawks going on a 14-7 run to close out the final 20 minutes after a pair of Marsh free throws had given ASU a 21-20. The one-point lead was the only advantage ASU had in the first half as McMurry led throughout, including having a 12-8 lead a little over five minutes into the game.

Skinner led the Rams with eight points in the first half with Marsh adding seven points and three rebounds, while Hammond scored six on a 3 of 3 shooting performance. ASU shot 10 of 23 in the first half with McM shooting 14 of 28, including hitting two 3-pointers. The Rams were 0-for-4 on their three-point attempts. Perez led the War Hawks with 12 points in the first half.