BELTON, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team started making three-pointers when it counted as the Cru was able to pull away late in an 85-74 win over Concordia Texas Thursday night in Belton. UMHB improves to 13-3 overall and 10-0 in American Southwest Conference play with its tenth straight victory. Concordia falls to 3-5 overall and 2-5 in the ASC on the year with the loss.
The Cru held a slim 35-32 lead at halftime and the Tornados clawed their way back for a 51-48 lead with 12:25 left in the game. A
Josiah Johnson jumper cut the lead to one and
Carson Hammond buried a long-range three to put UMHB back up 53-51. The Cru would lead by as many as eight before Concordia pulled back to within three with 4:18 to go. Johnson drained another three-pointer and then
Kyle Wright scored five straight points, including a three of his own to push the lead out to 11 points. UMHB would go on to lead by as many as 15 points before coasting to the victory.
There were seven ties and eight lead changes in a frantic first half. Neither team would lead by more than five points in the first 20 minutes with the Cru taking a 35-32 lead into the break.
Johnson poured in a game-high 27 points for UMHB to lead all scorers. Hammond added 14 points and
Aedan Welch and
Ty Prince added 11 points each. All of Prince's points came in the second half as he provided a spark off the bench. The Cru shot 48 percent as a team and went 5-11 from beyond the arc in the second half after hitting just 1-11 in the first half. UMHB was 23-36 from the line and out rebounded the Tornados 41-34.
Luis Gonzalez topped Concordia with 16 points. Antoine Henderson chipped in 13 and Tige Johnson came off the bench to score 11 for the Tornados. CTX shot 47 percent overall, but was just 5-20 on three's and 15-29 from the stripe in the loss.
The two teams will square off in a rematch Saturday afternoon in Austin. The UMHB men will then return home to close out the regular season with games against Sul Ross State and Howard Payne next week.
