Austin, TX— The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team built a huge first-half lead and then held off a furious second-half Concordia comeback as the Cru posted a 99-92 victory over the Tornados Saturday afternoon in Austin. UMHB, ranked 13th in the country by D3hoops.com, improves to 6-0 overall and 4-0 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The loss drops Concordia to 3-3 overall and 2-2 in the ASC on the season.
UMHB dominated the early going, closing the first half with a 17-9 run to take a 55-38 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Cru would lead by 23 points at 71-48 before the Tornados began to storm back. Concordia closed to within four points at 92-88 with 1:27 remaining, but Marlon Miller answered with a three-pointer and UMHB hit three free-throws to push the lead back to double digits at 98-88 with 11 seconds to go. Kenny Williams wrapped four points around a Miller free-throw in the final seconds to cut the gap to the final margin, but it was too little, too late for the Tornados.
Miller led the Cru with 23 points and he hit 10-11 from the free-throw line. Kitrick Bell had a huge game, pouring in 20 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. Sterling Phillips and Thomas Orr added 11 points apiece and Brian Todd also reached double figures with 10 for the Cru. Greg Wiernas led all rebounders with 12 boards.
Nick Haynes had a game-high 24 points, including six three-pointers for Concordia. Kenny Williams added 23 points and Darius Anderson chipped in 13 for the Tornados. Josh Johnson had seven rebounds in seven minutes of action to lead CTX.
UMHB shot 46 percent from the field in the game and went 36-55 from the charity stripe. Concordia hit 41 percent from the field and went 17-21 from the line. The two teams combined for 51 turnovers and there were 59 fouls and three technicals called in the game.
The Cru will now return home for a pair of ASC cross-over games next week. UMHB will host Mississippi College for a 7:30 PM tip-off on Thursday before closing out the week with a 3:00 PM start against Louisiana College on Saturday at the Mayborn Campus Center.