Box Score
Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor women's basketball team built a double-digit second half lead and the Cru women held on for a 64-58 victory over McMurry University Saturday afternoon in Belton. The UMHB women improve to 10-7 overall and 7-6 in American Southwest Conference play with the win. The Cru also moves into fourth place in the ASC West with the victory, one half-game ahead of McMurry. The loss drops McMurry to 8-8 overall and 6-6 in the ASC on the year.
McMurry would take a 10-9 lead in the early going before the Cru took an 11-10 lead on
Landie Thompson's lay-up with 13:29 left in the first half. UMHB would then score 10 of the next 12 points to stretch the lead to nine points and
Brittany Zamora's three-pointer on the last shot of the first half gave the Cru a 38-27 edge at the break. UMHB would keep McMurry at bay through most of the second half, pushing the lead to as many as 15 points on two occasions. McMurry would close to within nine with 2:19 left before
Jenny Black hit a free-throw with 1:06 to play to push the lead back to double figures. McMurry would cut it to eight on Victoria Salazar's jumper with 57 seconds left, but McMurry allowed UMHB to run the clock down on its final possession before turning the ball over. McMurry would add a final basket with two seconds on the clock.
Thompson and Zamora led the Cru with 14 points apiece and
Miranda Shorter also reached double figures with 11 points for the Cru.
Lindsay Eaton grabbed a team-high seven rebounds for UMHB and eight different players scored for UMHB.
Anna Berthel scored 17 to top McMurry and Salazar added 15 points. Keshia Collins grabbed a team-best 10 rebounds as McMurry out rebounded UMHB 44-32 in the game.
UMHB shot 43 percent from the field and went 6-14 from three-point range. The Cru held McMurry to 35 percent shooting from the field and just 1-6 from beyond the arc. The two teams combined for 43 turnovers and UMHB hit 16-19 from the free-throw line in the victory.
The Cru women will now hit the road for a pair of ASC West Division games next week. UMHB will open the week with a 5:30 PM tip-off at Howard Payne University next Thursday. The Cru women will close out the week with a 1:00 PM start at Sul Ross State University next Saturday in Alpine.
