Belton, TX— The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team scored just four seconds into the game and the Cru never looked back on the way to a 90-56 victory over Sul Ross State Saturday afternoon in Belton. The 10th-ranked UMHB men improve to 18-1 overall and 14-1 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The loss drops the Lobos to 5-14 overall and 5-10 in ASC play on the year with the loss.
Marlon Miller buried a three-pointer just four seconds after the Cru won the opening tip and UMHB scored the first seven points of the game. The Cru would lead 26-4 at the 10:24 mark of the first half and the game was never in doubt after that point. UMHB led 50-23 at halftime and the Lobos never got closer than 23 points the rest of the way as the Cru steamrolled to the victory.
Thomas Orr led UMHB with a career-high 22 points and he went 5-6 from three-point range. Miller added 20 points, all of them in the first half. Kitrick Bell also reached double figures for the Cru with 13 points and he also pulled down a team-high eight rebounds. Twelve different players scored in a balanced offensive attack for UMHB as the Cru shot 11-20 from three-point range. UMHB hit 51 percent from the field in the first half and 48 percent for the game.
Bralyn Thomas topped Sul Ross with 22 points and went 5-9 from three-point range. Colton Thompson had 17 points and 10 rebounds, with 11 of those points coming from the free-throw line. No other player had more than five points for the Lobos. Sul Ross shot 33 percent from the field and scored 20 of its points from the charity stripe, going 20-26 from the free-throw line. The Lobos also turned the ball over 23 times, compared to just eight for UMHB.
The Cru will return to action with a pair of ASC West Division road rematches next week. UMHB will take on Howard Payne University in a 7:30 PM start in Brownwood before closing out the week with a 3:00 PM tip-off at Sul Ross State Saturday in Alpine.