Box Score Box Score
Austin, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team overcame a double-digit deficit and survived a pair of late free throws in regulation before pulling away in overtime for a 107-100 victory over Concordia Texas Monday night in Austin. UMHB improves to 11-2 overall and 7-2 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The win also gives the Cru a half-game lead over Hardin-Simmons in the ASC West Division. Concordia falls to 7-6 overall and 5-4 in the ASC on the season with the loss. UMHB also avenges an 89-85 loss to the Tornados last Monday in Belton with tonight's victory.
Concordia had an 11-point lead at 48-37 with 1:48 left in the first half, but UMHB scored eight straight points, all of them by
Marlon Miller to cut it to 48-45 at the half. The Cru would take its first lead of the second half when
Robert Moore hit a jumper to make it 61-59 UMHB with 11:19 left to play. Concordia would retake the lead and held an 84-78 edge with 4:56 left to play.
Cory Meals would hit a lay-up to give UMHB the lead again at 86-85 with 3:03 to go and UMHB would grab a 91-90 lead with 51 seconds left on a pair of Miller free-throws. Tayler Jacobs was fouled with five seconds left, but he only hit one of two free-throws, tying the game at 91 with 4.6 seconds remaining. UMHB could not hit a shot at the buzzer, sending the game to overtime. The Cru slowly pulled away in the extra session to post its 17
th win over Concordia in the last 18 meetings between the two teams.
Miller came off the bench to lead the Cru with 27 points on 7-10 shooting from the field.
James Allen added 24 points on 8-12 shooting and
Sterling Phillips added 13 points for UMHB. Meals had a game-high nine rebounds for the Cru. UMHB shot 62 percent from the field and went 8-13 from three-point range in the game. The Cru was 33-50 from the free-throw line and out rebounded the Tornados 44-35. UMHB also turned the ball over 34 times, leading to 39 Concordia points. But the Cru dominated in the paint, scoring 40 points to 22 for the Tornados.
Jacobs had a huge night for Concordia with 33 points on 9-14 shooting. Darien Harris added 13 points and Josh Johnson had 11 for the Tornados. Justin Reefer had 10 points and nine rebounds and Chris McDermott also scored 10 points. Johnson, Reefer, McDermott, Connor Davenport and Harris all fouled out in a game that featured 76 fouls.
The Cru will now return home to host Schreiner University for a 7:30 PM tip-off Thursday night in Belton. UMHB will then close out a stretch of six games in 13 days with a 3:00 PM start at Texas Lutheran University Saturday in Seguin.
