Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team used a red-hot shooting night and solid defensive effort to cruise past conference rival Concordia Texas and into the Sectional Round of the NCAA Division III National Championships Saturday night in Belton. The Cru rolled to a 117-92 over the Tornados in the fourth meeting between the two teams this season. UMHB is now 24-5 on the season while the loss ends Concordia's season at 24-6.
The two teams traded the lead six times and there were five ties in the early going. UMHB started to pull away with a 6-0 run to push the lead to 31-22 with 9:31 left in the first half. Concordia would close back to within seven on two occasions, but the Cru opened up as much as a 15 point lead in the final minutes before settling for a 58-45 halftime lead. Back-to-back Cory Meals three-pointers allowed UMHB to take the lead over 20 points for the first time and the Cru stretched it out to as many as 29 points. The Tornados never got closer than 21 points the rest of the way as UMHB pushed its record against Concordia to 3-1 on the season.
Brian Todd had a huge game for the Cru with 28 points and 15 rebounds. James Allen added 27 points and seven boards, Thomas Orr chipped in 18 points, Meals finished with 17 and Russell Green scored 12 points and pulled down seven rebounds off the bench. UMHB shot 56 percent from the field in the first half and hit 55 percent for the game. The Cru also out rebounded the Tornados 49-41 while hitting 9-23 from three-point range.
Dwayne Patterson topped Concordia with 24 points and eight rebounds. Josh Sanchez added 18 points, but hit just 2-12 from the field. Brett DeMetrotion scored 14 points and Nick Haynes chipped in 11 for the Tornados. Concordia hit just 38 percent from the field and only made 4-24 from beyond the arc.
The Cru will now advance to the Sectional Round to face either Whitworth University of Emory University for the right to advance to the Division III Elite Eight. The Sectional Round will be played on Saturday, March 16th and the site for that game will be announced Sunday evening.