Belton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor women's basketball team dominated the early going and then held on late for a 68-58 victory over Howard Payne Saturday in Brownwood. The Cru improves to 13-10 overall and 8-5 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The loss drops the Yellow Jackets to 15-9 overall and 9-4 in the ASC on the season.

UMHB scored the game's first seven points and led 22-14 at the end of the first quarter. The Cru dominated in the second quarter, holding HPU to just seven points to open up a 34-22 halftime lead. The third quarter was even more lopsided, as UMHB opened up a 32-point edge by limiting the Yellow Jackets to just seven points and out scoring Howard Payne 27-7 in the period. The Cru went cold in the fourth quarter as HPU outscored UMHB 29-7, but the Yellow Jackets never got closer than the final margin.

Jonelle Smith led the Cru with 25 points and she also pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds. Tori Tucker and Kourtney Bevers added 13 points apiece. UMHB shot 40 percent from the field and went 7-14 from three-point range. The Cru also out rebounded Howard Payne 49-38 in the victory.

Micah Cisneroz, Presley McKethan and Danyel Bradley all scored 13 points for the Yellow Jackets. Cisneroz added a team-high nine rebounds. HPU shot just 20 percent from the field in the first half and finished at 31 percent for the game. The Yellow Jackets were 5-29 from beyond the arc in the loss.

The Cru will now return home to close out the regular season with a pair of games next week. UMHB will take on McMurry University in a 5:30 PM start next Thursday before facing Hardin-Simmons in a 1:00 PM tip-off on Saturday.