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Belton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team used a potent combination of hot shooting and stifling defense as the Cru rolled past U.T.-Tyler 77-51 Saturday afternoon in Belton. UMHB improves to 4-8 overall and 1-2 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The win also snaps a six-game losing skid for the Cru. The loss drops the Patriots to 8-5 overall and 3-4 in the ASC on the season.

UMHB opened the scoring on a Justin Gammill three-pointer and after U.T.-Tyler answered with a three of its own, the Cru would grab a four-point lead and never looked back. The Patriots cut it to 11-9 with 12:20 left in the first half, but UMHB scored the next six points and never let U.T.-Tyler get closer than three the rest of the way. The Cru held a 41-29 lead at halftime and then dominated the early going in the second half. UMHB's lead grew to as many as 32 points and the Cru held the Patriots scoreless for a 5:07 stretch in the half.

Daniel Mills topped UMHB with 15 points and Russell Green, Sidney Deloach and Demarius Cress all chipped in 12 points each. Green also pulled down a team-high nine rebounds. Layton Zinsmeister had six assists and became the Cru's Division III era career record holder in that category. Zinsmeister has 329 assists in his career, one more than Brandon Gatlin had for the previous mark. UMHB shot 57 percent from the field in the second half and hit 51 percent for the game. The Cru also hit 9-18 from three-point range and turned the ball over just nine times as 11 different players scored in the game for UMHB.

Demarcus Metcalf was the only player in double figures for the Patriots with 12 points. Melvin Anthony had nine rebounds. U.T.-Tyler shot just 30 percent as a team in the second half and only hit 33 percent for the game. The Patriots were 8-31 from beyond the arc, but did hold a slight rebounding edge at 37-36 in the contest.