Alpine, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team rallied from multiple double-digit deficits, but the Cru's final thrust came up short in a 70-64 loss to East Texas Baptist in the Quarterfinals of the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament Thursday in Alpine. The loss snaps UMHB's three-game winning streak and ends the Cru's season at 10-16.
ETBU jumped out to a 16-6 lead just 6:27 into the game and the Tigers led by 12 with 9:18 left in the half. UMHB responded with a 9-0 run to cut it to 26-23 5:29 remaining in the first half. ETBU pushed it back to a ten-point edge before settling for a 37-30 cushion at halftime. The Cru fought back to 40-38 in the opening minutes of the second half, but ETBU again responded and built a 57-46 lead with 9:14 left to play. UMHB again battled back to cut the lead to three points on three occasions in the final four minutes. Braden Hammond scored four straight points to make it 67-64 ETBU with 1:02 to go and UMHB forced a turnover. But the Cru turned it right back over to the Tigers before UMHB could get off a potential game-tying shot. Dylan Augustine hit two free-throws to give the Tigers a 69-64 lead with 31 seconds to go. UMHB then missed four shots, all of them in the paint at the other end before Cress was fouled on an off-balance three-pointer. Cress missed all three free-throws attempts and Augustine hit one of two at the other end to provide the final margin.
Cress topped the Cru with 16 points and he went 3-5 from three-point range. Russell Green added 14 points. Hammond pulled down a team-best seven rebounds and Layton Zinsmeister added four more assists to his Cru career record. UMHB shot 42 percent from the field as a team and went 5-14 from beyond the arc. The Cru was also just 9-16 from the free-throw line.
Augustine led the Tigers with 25 points and he hit 6-10 from three-point range. No other ETBU player scored more than eight points, but a total of ten players had points in a balanced effort. The Tigers shot 45 percent from the field and hit 13-33 from three-point range. ETBU also out rebounded the Cru 38-33 in the contest.
The loss closes out the UMHB careers of six Cru seniors. Green, Zinsmeister, Sidney Deloach, Jalen Jury, Oliver Houston and Davonta Black all played their final games in a UMHB uniform. The Cru was appearing in its ASC record 16th conference tournament. ETBU, the defending ASC Champion, improves to 21-5 with the victory. The Tigers also advance to face Louisiana College in the ASC Semifinals on Friday at 5:00 PM.