Marshall, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor women's basketball team built a double-digit lead just five minutes into the game and the Cru never looked back on the way to a 96-87 victory over East Texas Baptist University Thursday afternoon in Marshall. UMHB improves to 3-6 overall and 3-3 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The loss drops the Tigers to 3-6 overall and 1-5 in the ASC on the year.
The Cru women opened the game with an 8-2 run and led 14-4 at the 15:01 mark of the first half. The lead would grow to as many as 15 points before ETBU used a late run to cut the gap to 51-43 at halftime. UMHB would score the first points of the second half and never let the Tigers get closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Alyssa Dean erupted for a career-high 34 points to lead the Cru. Dean was 14-20 from the field and also pulled down eight rebounds. Taylor Tucker added 18 points and 12 rebounds and Macy Moore chipped in 17 points and 10 boards. UMHB shot 52 percent from the field and hit 4-8 from three-point range in the victory. The Cru out rebounded ETBU by a dominating 59-26 in the victory.
Kelly Johnstone topped the Tigers with 21 points off the bench. Amanda Rucker had 14 points and a team-high seven rebounds and April Leonard and Jasmine Davis added 12 points and 11 points respectively. ETBU shot just 42 percent from the field and went 14-35 from beyond the arc in the game.
The Cru women will close out the road trip with a 1:00 PM tip-off at LeTourneau University on Saturday in Longview. UMHB will then return home to host three ASC games next week.