Box Score
Brownwood, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor women's basketball team could not overcome hot starts from Howard Payne in both halves and the Cru women dropped a 73-53 decision to the Yellow Jackets in the regular season finale Saturday in Brownwood. The loss snaps UMHB's school-record 16-game winning streak and drops the Cru to 20-5 overall and 17-4 in American Southwest Conference play. Howard Payne improves to 20-5 overall and 16-5 in the ASC with the victory.
Howard Payne opened the game with an 11-3 run before the Cru battled back to cut the lead to 13-11. It would be 23-20 HPU with 6:31 remaining in the first half before the Jackets went on an 8-0 run to take a 31-20 lead with 4:19 left in the half. HPU would lead 37-27 at halftime after the two teams went scoreless for the final 2:42 of the half. HPU scored the first seven points of the second half to open up a 17-point lead at 44-27 and UMHB never recovered. The Cru would close to within nine at 57-48 with 5:20 left in the game, but HPU answered with another 8-0 run to put the game out of reach.
Lindsay Eaton led the Cru with 11 points and she also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds. Kallie White added 10 points for UMHB and Jessica Kelly and Kellie Thomas chipped in seven points apiece. Brittany Zamora topped Howard Payne with 26 points and Hope Hohertz added 19 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
The Cru shot just 34 per cent from the field and went 6-22 from three-point range. UMHB also turned the ball over 15 times and the Cru was out rebounded 40-34 in the loss. HPU shot 43 per cent from the field and went 16-20 from the free-throw line, while UMHB was just 7-11 from the stripe.
The Cru women are ASC West Division Champions for the first time in school history and UMHB will be the West Division's #1 seed in next week's ASC Championship Tournament. The ASC Tournament will be played in Pineville, Louisiana on the campus of Louisiana College. The Cru women will open the tournament with a 12:00 PM tip-off against East Texas Baptist University, the East Division #4 seed next Friday. UMHB topped ETBU 72-63 in the regular season meeting between the two teams.
