Belton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team used a late first-half run to grab the lead and the Cru held on with a hot-shooting second half on the way to an 85-75 victory over U.T.-Dallas Thursday night in Belton. UMHB snaps a two-game losing skid and improves to 5-3 overall and 1-2 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The loss drops the Comets to 4-3 overall and 2-1 in the ASC on the year.
U.T.-Dallas controlled the opening minutes of the game in storming out to a 20-7 lead with 13:05 remaining in the first half. UMHB slowly chipped away and cut the gap to 35-32 on LaKendric Hyson's lay-up with 5:49 on the clock. Demarius Cress buried a three-pointer to tie game at 35 and two Hyson free-throws gave the Cru its first lead of the game at 37-35 with 3:10 to go in the half. UMHB would lead 43-39 at the break after shooting 52 percent from the field and 56 percent from three-point range in the first half.
The Cru pushed the lead out to 13 points on three different occasions early in the second half, but the Comets used a 14-0 run to grab a 60-59 lead with 7:24 to play. Ryan Lang's three-pointer gave the lead right back to UMHB and the Cru quickly stretched it out to an eight-point advantage. UTD would get closer than six points the rest of the way as UMHB was able to ice the game from the free-throw line.
Justin Gammill had 17 points and a game-high 11 rebounds to lead the Cru, Sam Moore also had 17 points, with ten of those coming in the first half. Braden Hammond had 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists for UMHB, Aubrie King chipped in 11 points and Hyson and Lang scored 10 points apiece. The Cru shot 56 percent from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arc in the second half. UMHB hit 54 percent from both for the game.
Dimitrius Underwood topped the Comets with 16 points and Hans Burwitz, Jon Hatcher and Curtis Allen had 12 points apiece. UTD shot 43 percent from the field but went just 9-26 from three-point range. The Comets had 14 offensive rebounds and finished with a 37-33 edge on the boards overall.
The Cru will host Southwestern University for a 4:00 PM, non-conference start on Sunday. UMHB will then hit the road for a pair of ASC road games next week.