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Ken DeWeese here.
Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team clawed its way back from a 13-point first-half deficit and iced the game with some clutch free-throw shooting in a 79-75 victory over Willamette University to close out the Cru Holiday Classic Thursday night in Belton. The UMHB men improve to 8-1 with their sixth straight victory. The loss drops the Bearcats to 3-8 on the season.
Willamette controlled the early going and built a 26-13 lead with 10:04 left in the first half. UMHB stormed back with a 14-2 run to close to within 28-27 with 3:12 remaining in the half. The Cru would tie the game on
Dean Pele's three-point play with 21 seconds left in the half and it would be 35-35 at the break. The Bearcats would open up a seven-point lead at 50-43 with 14:01 left in the game, but UMHB answered with a 13-0 run and took its first lead of the game on Quinn Brownfield's three-pointer with 11:59 to go. The Cru would build a 56-50 lead at that point and stretched it to 61-52 with 9:09 to play. Willamette used a run of its own to take a 64-63 lead with 5:47 on the clock. UMHB would retake the lead at 65-64 and is would be a 68-68 game with 2:44 remaining. The Cru scored the next four points before Willamette cut it to one point again at 72-71 on Terrell Malley's lay-up at 1:29. UMHB used a pair of baskets from
James Allen to push the lead back to five and the Bearcats would not get closer than three the rest of the way as the Cru hit several key free-throws in the final seconds.
Brownfield came off the bench to lead UMHB with 17 points on 7-11 shooting.
Kevin Neal had 15 points and seven assists for the Cru and Neal and
Kitrick Bell both grabbed seven rebounds for UMHB. Eleven different players scored for the Cru in the victory and UMHB outrebounded the Bearcats 50-39.
Taylor Mounts had a huge game for Willamette, posting a double-double in the first 15 minutes of the game and finishing with 28 points and 18 rebounds. Ryan Meehan added 11 points for the Bearcats. Willamette turned the ball over 20 times and went just 6-24 from three-point range. The Bearcats shot 43 percent from the field while UMHB shot 41 percent. The Cru was 3-17 from beyond the arc and 20-34 from the free-throw line.
UMHB will now continue its homestand with the start of American Southwest Conference West Division play on Monday. The Cru will host Concordia Texas for a men's and women's doubleheader at 5:30 and 7:30 PM. UMHB will then host University of the Ozarks and U.T.-Dallas for ASC crossover doubleheaders on Thursday and Saturday to close out next week's action. UMHB also improved to 9-1 all-time in Cru Holiday Classic action with Thursday's win over Willamette.
