Belton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team used a hot shooting day to help overcome a huge deficit from the free-throw line as the Cru topped Southwestern University 99-89 Saturday afternoon in Belton. UMHB moves to 6-3 on the year with the victory. The loss drops the Pirates to 2-5 on the season.

The two teams traded the lead seven times in a see-saw first half before the Cru was able to open up a 10-point cushion at 38-28. UMHB led 43-35 at the break. The Cru seemed to take control of the game midway through the second half and opened it up to a 17-point advantage at 79-62 with 7:22 remaining. Southwestern answered with a 16-2 run to close the gap to three points with 4:00 left to play. Aubrie King and Braden Hammond hit three-pointers on back-to-back trips for UMHB and the Cru would go on to ice the game with clutch free throws down the stretch.

Sam Moore led UMHB with 22 points and he also had six assists. Justin Gammill scored 18 points and grabbed a team-best eight rebounds off the bench. King and Demarius Cress scored 12 points apiece and Hammond and Brian Long chipped in 11 points apiece. The Cru shot 58 percent from the field in the second half and hit 50 percent from three-point range over the final 20 minutes. UMHB finished at 52 percent from the field and 45 percent from beyond the arc as a team. The Cru was 14-20 from the free-throw line, but most of those attempts came after the Pirates began intentionally fouling in the final minutes.

Ryan Ogden led all scorers with 25 points for Southwestern and Ryan Wheeler had 21 more. Brandon Alexander scored 14 points and Kyle Howard had 11 for the Pirates. Southwestern out rebounded UMHB 49-38 and went 26-37 from the charity stripe. The Pirates shot 38 percent from the field and were 9-29 from long-range in the loss.

The Cru men will return to American Southwest Conference action with a pair of road games next week. UMHB will take on University of the Ozarks on Thursday before facing U.T.-Tyler on Saturday afternoon.