BROWNWOOD, Texas – The game may have lacked the offensive fireworks from the initial meeting between the two teams, but the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor women's basketball team still came up with enough points to top Howard Payne 77-64 Thursday night in Brownwood. The Cru improves to 20-4 overall and 13-2 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The loss drops the Yellow Jackets to 10-14 overall and 6-9 in the ASC on the year.
 
The two teams were tied at 28-28 at halftime before UMHB opened the second half with an 11-5 run to grab a six-point lead. That lead would grow to as many as nine points before Howard Payne pulled back to within 53-49 at the end of the third quarter. The Lady Jackets cut it to 55-53 early in the final period, but Kendall Rollins buried a three-pointer, Madison McCoy made a pair of free-throws and Hannah Holt hit a jumper to put the Cru up 62-53. HPU never got closer than five points the rest of the way as UMHB opened it up down the stretch to pull away for the victory.
 
Rollins led the Cru with 26 points as she hit 6-7 three-pointers. Allaira Jones had 19 points and seven rebounds and Holt added 16 points and eight rebounds. UMHB shot 45 percent from the field and was 23-32 from the free-throw line. The Cru also out rebounded Howard Payne 40-33 in the contest. UMHB had 33 first quarter points in a 112-70 win over the Lady Jackets 12 days ago in Belton but didn't reach 33 points until the 8:40 mark of the third period in Thursday night's victory.
 
Chelsey Harris led HPU with 20 points. Bria Neal added 18 points and seven rebounds, but the rest of the team combined for just 26 points. The Lady Jackets shot 40 percent from the field while going 5-20 from beyond the arc and 13-21 from the stripe.
 
The win, coupled with Hardin-Simmons' loss at UT Dallas puts the Cru in sole possession of first place in the ASC West Division. UMHB will close out the regular season with a 1 pm tip-off at Sul Ross State Saturday in Alpine.