PINEVILLE, Louisiana – For the second straight game, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team started slowly and could not claw all the way back in a 92-86 loss to Louisiana College Saturday afternoon in Pineville, Louisiana. The Cru falls to 10-4 overall and 2-3 in American Southwest Conference play with its third straight loss. The Wildcats improve to 9-4 overall and 3-1 in the ASC with the victory.
 
Two days after falling behind Belhaven 13-2 to start the game, UMHB trailed LC 13-3 four minutes into Saturday's game. The Cru would cut that gap to four points twice before the Wildcats took it back out to 40-33 at the half. LC opened up a 15-point lead at 53-38 with 16 minutes remaining before UMHB battled back again. Joseph Mitchell's three-pointer made it a three-point game at 77-74 with 5:32 to go, but the Wildcats were able to answer with clutch free-throw shooting down the stretch and never let UMHB get closer than five points the rest of the way.
 
Mitchell led the Cru with a career-high 21 points and he hit 8-11 from the field and 4-6 three-pointers. He also had a team-best eight rebounds. Logan Hicks added 17 points, Salomon Smith scored 13 and Sam Moore added 12 points. Hicks and Moore also had six assists apiece. UMHB shot 40 percent from the field and went 11-32 from beyond the arc. The Cru was 17-21 from the free-throw line.
 
Kae'ron Baker poured in 35 points for LC and he hit 7-13 from beyond the arc. K.D. Wallace had 18 points and seven rebounds and K.J. Bilbo scored 13 points. The Wildcats shot 44 percent from the field, hit 10-29 from distance and connected on 24-31 from the stripe. Louisiana College also held a slight 40-38 edge on the glass.
 
UMHB returns home to host a pair of key ASC West Division games next week. The Cru will face Hardin-Simmons in a 7:30 tip-off on Thursday before taking on McMurry University in a 3 pm start next Saturday.