Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team trailed for the first two minutes, but the Cru opened it up from there and cruised to an 80-71 victory over East Texas Baptist University Monday night in Belton. The UMHB men improve to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The loss drops the Tigers to 2-1 overall and 1-1 in ASC action on the season.

ETBU scored the game's first three points, but UMHB took the lead for keeps at 4-3 2:17 into the game. The Cru would lead by as many as ten points in the first half before settling for a 41-32 halftime lead. UMHB would stretch it out in the second half and pushed the lead to as many as 20 points before a late ETBU run cut it to the final margin.

The Cru shot 40 percent from the field and 31 percent from three-point range while ETBU hit 47 percent from the field and 41 percent from long-range. UMHB out rebounded the Tigers 47-32 and forced 22 ETBU turnovers in the win.

Marlon Miller led the Cru with 18 points and he also pulled down nine rebounds. Thomas Orr came off the bench to pour in 15 points and Kitrick Bell also had 15 points off the bench. Greg Wiernas pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds for UMHB.

Jeremy LaGarde led all scorers with 23 points for ETBU. Courtney Jones had 12 points on 5-5 shooting off the bench for the Tigers.

The Cru will travel to Longview Thursday to take on the Yellow Jackets in a 7:30 PM tip-off. UMHB will face off with U.T.-Tyler in a 3:00 PM start on Saturday. The Cru will open ASC West Division play at Concordia Texas next Saturday in Austin.