Marshall, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor women's basketball team controlled the second half as the Cru rolled to an 80-62 victory over East Texas Baptist University Thursday night in Marshall. UMHB improves to 5-8 overall and 1-3 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The win also gives Cru Head Coach Mark Morefield his first conference victory. The loss drops the Tigers to 10-4 overall and 4-2 in the ASC on the year.

UMHB opened the game with an 8-2 run and led 17-10 at the end of the first quarter. ETBU would close to within 33-27 at halftime before the Cru started to heat up in the second half. UMHB led by 11 at the end of the third quarter and stretched the edge out to as many as 20 points in the fourth quarter. The Tigers would never get closer than nine points in the fourth period as the Cru put the game away. UMHB shot 50 percent from the field in the second half and hit 9-13 from three-point range after the break.

Jonelle Smith poured in 21 points, 18 of them in the second half as she hit 6-7 from beyond the arc to lead the Cru. Tori Tucker added 16 points and hit 3-4 from three-point range. Kendra Wynn had 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds for UMHB and Bridjai Chaney added 10 points. The Cru finished 13-23 from three-point range in the win and shot 48 percent from the field as a team. UMHB forced 17 turnovers while giving the ball away just 11 times in the victory.

April Leonard topped ETBU with 13 points and Ambrosia Williams added 12 more off the bench. Williams hit 4-6 three-pointers in the game. The Tigers shot 9-30 from beyond the arc and went just 1-4 from the free-throw line. ETBU hit 43 percent from the field as a team and held a narrow rebounding edge of 38-35 in the loss.

The UMHB women will now return home to open a four-game home stand. The Cru will host Concordia Texas for a 1:00 PM start on Saturday. UMHB will then welcome University of the Ozarks to the Mayborn Campus Center for a 5:30 PM tip on Monday.