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Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team avenged its only loss of the season by building a double-digit first-half lead and then holding off a late East Texas Baptist run as the Cru posted a 75-68 victory over the Tigers Wednesday night in Belton. The game was in the opening round of the 5
th annual Cru Holiday Classic. The UMHB men have now won five in a row since falling to ETBU 88-76 exactly one month ago. The Cru is now 7-1 on the season following the victory. The loss drops the Tigers to 7-2 on the year.
UMHB held ETBU scoreless for the first 3:46 of the game, but could only open up a 7-2 lead in that time. The Cru would stretch the lead to 14 points at 29-15 with 5:33 left in the first half, but the Tigers closed the half with a 15-8 run to cut it to 37-30 at halftime. UMHB would open it up again in the second half, taking a 61-46 lead with 9:22 left to play. The Tigers would chip away again and pulled to within six points on two occasions late in the game, once at 67-61 with 2:54 left and then again at 71-65 with 37 seconds to go. UMHB would answer each time before R.J. Prince hit a three-pointer with 11 seconds to play, cutting the lead to 73-68. UMHB then used a pair of
Marlon Miller free-throws to push it to the final margin and Miller came up with a steal on the final ETBU possession to ice the victory.
Miller finished with a season-high 23 points to lead the Cru and he added six rebounds.
Robert Moore had 19 points for the Cru,
Sterling Phillips chipped in with 10 points and
Greg Wiernas added a game-high 10 rebounds for UMHB. The Cru shot 42 percent from the field, but went 17-25 from the free-throw line and outrebounded ETBU 42-36.
Josh Chambers and Jeremy LaGarde lead the Tigers with 14 points apiece before both players fouled out in the final minute. Chambers added nine rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. Deba Egharevba also reached double figures with 10 points for the Tigers. ETBU shot 44 percent from the field and went 9-13 from the charity stripe.
The Cru will now face Willamette University in a 7:30 PM tip-off to close out the Cru Holiday Classic tomorrow night. UMHB improved to 8-1 all-time in the holiday tournament with the victory. East Texas Baptist will take on Texas Lutheran University in a 5:30 PM start to open tomorrow's final day of tournament play.
