No. 2 Howard Payne rallied from a halftime deficit and held off No. 9 McMurry down the stretch as the Yellow Jackets remained unbeaten and ran their winning streak to 20 consecutive games with a 56-51 victory.

D3hoops.com All-American Meia Daniels scored 23 points and was 13-for-14 from the foul line in the victory.

McMurry held a two-point lead at the half despite having All-American Tarra Richardson on the bench for most of the period with two fouls. McMurry, which fell to 17-3, lost to Howard Payne for the second time in eight days.

&&g-boxl&&It was Howard Payne's 22nd consecutive American Southwest Conference victory.

Thursday night's women's and men's schedule and scores.

Alvernia handed Gwynedd-Mercy its first Pennsylvania Athletic Conference loss since 2005, 83-80. The Griffins had won 43 consecutive league games. Sarah Meisenberg reached the 1,000-point milestone in the first half and then celebrated by scoring the game winner with three seconds left in Franklin & Marshall's 64-63 win at Johns Hopkins.

In men's action, No. 17 UW-Platteville survived an upset bid by UW-La Crosse, winning 78-77 in double overtime. The Pioneers got 29 from Jeff Skemp and 20 from Curt Hanson, who played 47 and 49 minutes, respectively.

Illinois Wesleyan defeated North Central 81-67, giving the Titans a little bit of breathing room in the chase for four CCIW tournament slots. The Titans are one game behind first place No. 7 Augustana who avenged its conference opening loss to North Park, 72-61. Carthage dropped its third straight, this time falling to Wheaton (Ill.) 71-54 and falling into a three-way tie for third with the Thunder and No. 25 Elmhurst.