Box Score Box Score
Pineville, LA – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team opened up a tight game in the final five minutes and then held off a late rally as the Cru went on to post a 91-81 victory over Louisiana College Thursday night in Pineville, Louisiana. The UMHB men improve to 6-1 overall and 4-1 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The loss drops the Wildcats to 4-5 overall and 3-3 in the ASC on the year.
UMHB opened the game with a 7-2 run and the Cru scored 18 of the game's first 24 points. But Louisiana College closed the gap and the Wildcats would take a 38-37 lead into the locker room at halftime. LC would push the lead to four points and the two teams would battle back-and-forth in a second half that featured five ties. UMHB would lead by nine points before the Wildcats closed to within 76-73 with 4:54 remaining in the game. The Cru then used a
Sterling Phillips jumper, a
Sully Haywood three-pointer and a pair of
Robert Moore free-throws to open up an 83-73 lead with 3:32 left in the game. The Wildcats would manage to cut the lead to five points with 32 seconds to go, but UMHB scored the game's final five points to pull away at the end.
Moore led the Cru with 23 points on 7-13 shooting from the field.
James Allen came off the bench to add 15 points for UMHB and
Marlon Miller added 12 points off the bench.
Dean Pele also reached double figures with 11 points for the Cru and he grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
Korey Salmon topped the Wildcats with 23 points and Danny Sumner came off the bench to hit 6-10 three-pointers and add 22 points. JeLani Mitchell had 13 points and nine assists for LC and Chukwuma Ekeh pulled down eight rebounds to top the Wildcats.
UMHB out rebounded the Wildcats 51-34 and the Cru shot 45 percent from the field. Louisiana College hit 43 percent from the field and went 12-31 from three-point range. UMHB shot 11-24 from beyond the arc.
The Cru will now return home to host the fifth annual Cru Holiday Classic on December 29th and 30th. The four-team tournament will feature games at 5:30 and 7:30 PM each day. UMHB will then return to ASC play with the ASC West Division opener against Concordia Texas on January 3rd at 7:30 PM at the Mayborn Campus Center.
