Alpine, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor women's basketball team overcome a cold shooting night with a strong defensive effort as the Cru held off Sul Ross State 50-43 Thursday night in Alpine. UMHB improves to 12-10 overall and 7-5 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The loss drops the Lobos to 4-19 overall and 1-11 in the ASC on the season.

Sul Ross jumped out to a seven-point lead in the first quarter before UMHB battled back to cut the gap to 14-10 after one period. The Cru would score 11 points off Lobos turnovers in the second quarter to grab a 26-25 lead at halftime. Both teams were cold in the third quarter, but the Cru would lead by as many as six points before settling for a 39-36 edge entering the fourth quarter. UMHB would push the lead to as many as 12 points in the final period to take control of the game. Sul Ross would close to within four points late, but the Cru iced the game from the free-throw line in the final seconds.

Kendra Wynn led a balanced scoring effort for UMHB with eight points and Jonelle Smith, Tori Tucker and Mackenzie Coffey added seven points apiece. Bridjai Chaney pulled down a team-high nine rebounds and Coffey added seven more. The Cru shot just 28 percent from the field as a team and went 3-13 from three-point range. UMHB scored 17 points from the free-throw, but hit just 17-30 from the stripe in the game. The Cru out rebounded the Lobos 47-42 in the victory.

Kenya Miles topped all scorers with 11 points for Sul Ross State and Shannon Villanueva added 10 points. Villanueva also grabbed seven rebounds. The Lobos were held to just 16 percent shooting in the second half and only hit 29 percent for the game. Sul Ross went 2-13 from beyond the arc and turned the ball over 16 times in the loss.

The Cru will take on Howard Payne in a 1:00 PM start on Saturday in Brownwood. UMHB will then return home to close out the regular season with games against McMurry University and Hardin-Simmons University next weekend.