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Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team built a 15-point second-half lead and then held off a furious U.T.-Dallas comeback as the Cru posted an 80-70 victory over the Comets to win the American Southwest Conference Championship in the ASC Tournament title game Sunday in Belton. UMHB improves to 22-6 on the season with the victory and claims the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Division III National Championships. U.T.-Dallas falls to 23-5 on the year with the loss and the defeat also snaps a five-game ASC Tournament winning streak for the Comets.
The Cru held a 42-30 lead at halftime and UMHB opened it up to 17-points at 53-36 with 14:25 left to play. The Cru held a 64-47 edge with 7:48 remaining, but UTD stormed back. The Comets used a 16-1 run to cut the lead to 65-63 with 2:45 to go. Sterling Phillips answered with a jump shot on the other end to make it 67-63 and Comets forward Jimmy Witten turned the ball over as he suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury on the ensuing possession. UMHB converted the turnover into points and a 69-63 edge. The Comets would close to within four points on two more occasions, but the Cru answered from the free-throw line each time and slowly stretched it back to double digits by the final buzzer.
UMHB opened the game with a 9-3 run before the Comets battled back to tie it at nine. UTD would take a 25-23 lead with 7:50 left in the first half, but the Cru closed the half with a 19-5 run to take that 42-30 halftime lead.
Sterling Phillips led the Cru with 15 points and Dean Pele added 14 points off the bench for UMHB. Theo Ard and Ervin Johnson had 12 points apiece and
Zane Johnston also reached double figures with 11 points. Rich Moore grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds for the Cru. Witten led the Comets with 22 points before his injury. Jared Fleming added 15 points and Curtis Davis and Chris Barnes chipped in 12 points apiece for UTD.
Phillips was named ASC Tournament MVP and was joined on the All-Tournament Team by teammates Ard and Johnson. Fleming and Witten were also named to the All-Tournament squad, along with Mississippi College's Donnie Haywood and Jacob Turnipseed of East Texas Baptist University.
UMHB improved to 6-0 in ASC Tournament games played on its home floor at the Mayborn Campus Center. The Cru also went 3-0 and won the league title in Belton in the 2008 Tournament. UMHB is also the only ASC school to win the league's football and men's basketball conference championships in the same season. The Cru won also won both of those titles in 2008 and UMHB has accomplished that honor twice.
UMHB wins its second ASC title in three years and will now advance to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in school history. The Cru will find out where it will go and who the first-round opponent will be when the field for the NCAA Championships is announced tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM Central Time. The announcement will be made live on www.ncaa.com.
