Box Score
Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor women's basketball team stormed back from a double-digit second half lead and the Cru held on for a 63-58 victory over Texas Lutheran University Thursday night in Belton. The UMHB women improve to 18-4 overall and 15-3 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The win is the 14
th consecutive victory for the Cru women, and coupled with Hardin-Simmons' win over Howard Payne, gives UMHB a two-game lead over HPU in the ASC West Division with three games remaining in the regular season. Texas Lutheran falls to 11-10 overall and 10-8 in the ASC on the season with the loss.
Texas Lutheran led by as many as eight points in the first half and held a 31-25 edge at halftime. The Bulldogs would push the lead to 39-29 early in the second half before UMHB stormed back. The Cru used an 11-2 run to close to within 41-40 with 10:24 remaining in the game. UMHB would take its first lead of the second half at 45-43 with 8:17 left to play. The Cru stretched the lead to 50-45 with 7:05 to go, but the Bulldogs closed to within two at 52-50 on Amy Doyle's jumper with 5:34 on the clock. Kallie White and Lindsay Eaton combined to hit four straight free-throws for UMHB to make it a six-point game before TLU fought back again. Doyle hit the front end of a one-and-one with 36 seconds left to cut the lead to 60-58, but she missed the second and UMHB hit three more free-throws to ice the game.
White finished with 15 points to lead UMHB and Eaton finished with 13 points and nine rebounds. Cru point guard Caitlin Barganier also grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. Jennifer Munoz topped TLU with 12 points and Doyle and Candace Mitchell added 11 points apiece. Jessica Morrison had a team-high eight rebounds off the bench for the Bulldogs.
UMHB shot just 32 per cent from the field in the first half and only hit 36 per cent for the game. The Cru was just 3-18 from three-point range, but held TLU to 31 per cent shooting from the field and 6-27 from beyond the arc. UMHB also had a huge rebounding edge in the second half and out rebounded the Bulldogs 48-37 in the victory.
The Cru women will now finish out the regular season with three straight road games. UMHB will travel to Kerrville on Saturday for a 1:00 PM tip-off at Schreiner University. The Cru will play at Sul Ross State and at Howard Payne next week to close out the season. UMHB needs just one more win to clinch the #1 seed from the ASC West in the ASC Championship Tournament.
