Box Score
Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team took control of the game in the first half and never looked back as the Cru rolled to a 90-77 victory over East Texas Baptist University Saturday night in Belton. The UMHB men improve to 3-2 overall and 2-2 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The loss drops the Tigers to 2-2 overall and 2-1 in the ASC on the season.
ETBU came out of the gate on a hot streak and the Tigers jumped out to a 23-16 lead with 11:08 left in the first half. But UMHB dominated from there. The Cru scored the next 17 points to open up a 33-23 lead and UMHB would hold a 43-29 edge at halftime. The Cru would build the lead to 18 points on two occasions early in the second half before the Tigers used a brief run to cut it to 11 points at 62-51 with 9:12 remaining. The Cru pushed the lead back to 21 points at 78-57 before ETBU used a 13-2 run to pull to within 11 points again with 3:59 to play. That would be as close as the Tigers would get though, as the Cru stretched it back to 16 points with 1:08 to play and cruised to the victory.
Dean Pele led UMHB with 23 points on 7-10 shooting from the field and he also hit 6-8 from three-point range. Theo Ard had 13 points for the Cru on 6-7 shooting. Ervin Johnson chipped in with 11 points off the bench,
Zane Johnston added 10 points and Greg Wiernas had nine points and a team-high seven rebounds for the Cru. Deba Egharevba topped ETBU with 19 points and he also grabbed a team-high five rebounds. James Morman had 16 points and Jacob Turnipseed added 15 points for the Tigers.
UMHB shot a blistering 63 per cent from the field in the first half and finished at 56 per cent for the game. The Cru also hit 56 per cent from three-point range and out rebounded the Tigers 38-30. ETBU shot 41 per cent from the field and 39 per cent from beyond the arc.
The Cru men will now hit the road for a pair of key ASC games next week. The UMHB men will open the week with a 7:30 PM tip-off at Concordia Texas Thursday night in Austin. The Cru men will then close out the week with a 7:00 PM start at U.T.-Tyler next Saturday.
