Abilene, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team pulled away with hot second half shooting as the Cru posted an 96-84 victory over McMurry University Thursday night in Abilene. UMHB clinches the #3 seed from the American Southwest Conference West Division in the ASC Championship Tournament with the win.

The Cru opened strong and Austen Stolte's dunk gave UMHB a 13-6 lead early in the game. McMurry battled back to take a 16-15 lead and the War Hawks took the lead out to 11 points at 37-26 with 5:05 left in the first half. The Cru cut it to two before McMurry grabbed a 47-41 halftime lead. UMHB took its first lead of the second half at 55-54 and then scored the next 14 points to snag a 69-54 lead to take control of the game. The Cru lead would grow to as many as 17 points before the War Hawks scratched back to within 88-82 with 2:39 to go. UMHB would close the game with an 8-2 run to end the McMurry threat.

Daniel Mills went 10-19 from the field and scored a game-high 29 points for the Cru. Mills also went over 1,000 points for his UMHB career in the win. Demarius Cress scored 24 points and Aubrie King chipped in ten points and eight rebounds. The Cru shot 58 percent from the field in the second half and hit 49 percent for the game. UMHB also went 25-32 from the free-throw line in the victory.

Nate Estrada had 22 points to lead McMurry. Zacc Carter and Darius Watts scored 13 points apiece and Aaron Gettys chipped in ten points. The War Hawks shot 44 percent from the field and out rebounded the Cru 41-35. UMHB did force 18 War Hawk turnovers in the contest.

UMHB improves to 16-8 overall and 9-6 in ASC play with the victory. The loss drops the War Hawks to 9-15 overall and 4-11 in the ASC on the season. The Cru will close out the regular season with a 3:00 PM tip-off at Hardin-Simmons University on Saturday.