Belton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team rallied from a double-digit deficit to open up a late lead and the Cru held off Texas Lutheran for a 90-88 win Saturday night in Belton. UMHB improves to 2-0 with the victory. The loss drops the Bulldogs to 0-2 on the season.

The Cru took a four-point lead early in the second half, but Texas Lutheran responded and opened up a nine-point advantage at 76-67 with 6:40 remaining in the game. UMHB answered with a 10-1 run to tie the game at 77 on a LaKendric Hyson free-throw with 4:07 left to play. TLU retook the lead on a pair of free-throws before Sam Moore scored seven straight Cru points, wrapped around a Jacob Kouremetis three-pointer to put UMHB on top 84-82 with one minute to go. Justin Gammill hit a free-throw, Demarius Cress hit a lay-up and Moore buried two more free throws to give the Cru an 89-82 lead with 11.1 seconds on the clock. Kouremetis hit another three to cut it to 89-85 with 5.4 seconds remaining, but Cress hit another free-throw to make it 90-85. Nathan Josephs buried a three-pointer at the buzzer to close the gap to the final margin. Texas Lutheran led by as many 14 points in the first half as the Bulldogs hit 7-15 from long-range in the opening 20 minutes.

Moore led UMHB with 22 points and he was 8-8 from the charity stripe. Cress added 20 points and Hyson had 16 more for the Cru. Shaq Martin scored 11 points off the bench and Gammill made it five players in double figures with 10. Gammill also had a team-best five rebounds. UMHB shot 57 percent from the field in the second half and hit 49 percent for the game. The Cru was 23-32 from the free-throw line.

Josephs led TLU with 23 points and Kouremetis poured in 20 on 6-8 shooting from beyond the arc. Two other players also reached double figures and Matthew Gillette grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds. The Bulldogs shot 52 percent from the field as a team and out rebounded UMHB 44-25. TLU committed 24 turnovers and hit just 5-13 from long-range in the second half.

The Cru men will return to action with a 6:30 PM home game against Schreiner University on Tuesday. UMHB topped the Mountaineers 74-58 in the season opener last Wednesday in Kerrville.