ALPINE, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball team pulled away at the ten minute mark and then held off a late comeback bid as the Cru posted an 83-75 victory over Sul Ross State Thursday night in Alpine. UMHB has now won seven straight games to move to 10-3 overall and 7-0 in American Southwest Conference play on the year. The loss drops the Lobos to 7-7 overall and 5-4 in the ASC on the year.
 
The Cru seemed to be in control early in the second half before Sul Ross started chipping away. The Lobos pulled to within eight at 56-48 with 10:57 left to play. Ty Prince answered with a layup to take the lead back to double digits and Kyle Wright scored seven consecutive points to give UMHB a 17-point advantage. The Cru lead would grow to as many as 21 points in the late going before UMHB took its foot off the gas a little. Sul Ross closed the game with a 12-0 run to pull back to within eight, but it was too little, too late to pull off the comeback.
 
The first half was back and forth in the early going with six lead changes. UMHB turned up the defense from there and started to create some separation. The Cru used an 11-0 erase to erase a deficit and Prince's lay-up made it 24-14 with 7:20 left in the first half. The Lobos pulled back to within five points before another UMHB spurt stretched the lead to 11 points. Sul Ross cut it to nine points against, but back-to-back lay-ups from Byrale Carter and Josiah Johnson pushed it to 39-26 Cru at halftime. UMHB held the Lobos to 25 percent shooting from the field in the opening half while the Cru hit 42 percent as a team. Prince and Johnson combined for 19 of UMHB's 39 first-half points.
 
Johnson finished with a team-high 20 points on the night. Carter had 19 points and 11 rebounds and Prince added 16 points and eight boards. The Cru shot 47 percent from the field as a team and hit 9-29 three-pointers. UMHB also out rebounded the Lobos 45-41 in the win.
 
Julian Parades topped Sul Ross with 24 points and seven rebounds. Tristen Licon had 11 points and seven rebounds, but was limited to just 23 minutes by an injury. Omar Boone had 12 points. The Lobos shot just 39 percent from the field and were 12-40 from beyond the arc.

Clif Carroll was coaching in Alpine for the first time since leaving Sul Ross after five seasons as head coach to take over UMHB's program. The Cru also picked up some payback after falling to the Lobos 89-75 in a non-conference game back in December.
 
The Cru men will close out the road trip with a 7 pm start at Howard Payne University Saturday in Brownwood. UMHB will then return home to open a five game home stand next week.