Box Score Box Score
Brownwood, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team had a chance at the game winner in the final seconds, but the Cru could not convert in a 68-65 loss to Howard Payne University Thursday night in Brownwood. The loss drops the Cru to 14-4 overall and 10-4 in American Southwest Conference play on the season. The Yellow Jackets improve to 5-13 overall and 4-10 in the ASC on the year with the victory.
The two teams were tied at 36 at halftime after the Cru led by as many as 11 points in the first half. Howard Payne scored the first six points of the second half and led by as many as nine points before UMHB started to chip away. HPU would lead 55-49 with 9:52 left to play before
Robert Moore scored six straight points for the Cru to tie the game. The two teams traded the lead from there before
Marlon Miller's lay-in gave UMHB a 65-64 lead with 2:01 remaining in the game. Neither team would score again until Brandon Irwin went baseline to lay one in the Yellow Jackets to give Howard Payne a 66-65 lead with nine seconds on the clock. Miller could not hit a three at the other end and UMHB was forced to foul. Donovan Gardner buried both free throws to give HPU a 68-65 lead and
Dean Pele just missed a potential game-winning three at the buzzer as the Yellow Jackets held on for the win.
Robert Moore led the Cru with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Miller,
Sterling Phillips and
Greg Wiernas added 11 points apiece. Wiernas also had nine rebounds for UMHB.
Irwin finished with 31 points and he hit 4-6 from three-point range. Joshua Dada added 10 points for the Yellow Jackets and Gardner grabbed a game-high nine rebounds to lead HPU.
The Cru shot just 32 percent from the field in the loss and went 2-21 from three-point range. Howard Payne hit 33 percent from the floor and went 6-16 from beyond the arc. The Yellow Jackets also made more free-throws (22) than UMHB shot in the game (20). The Cru out rebounded the Yellow Jackets 58-45 and UMHB pulled down 26 offensive boards.
The Cru men will continue their home stand with a 3:00 PM tip-off at Sul Ross State University Saturday in Alpine. UMHB will then return home for rematches against Howard Payne and Sul Ross State next week at the Mayborn Campus Center.
