LAS VEGAS, Nev. – University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's basketball defeated Ohio Northern on Monday night in the first game of the D3hoops.com Classic. This 74-65 win improves the Cru's record to 8-4 while the Polar Bears fall to 6-6 on the season.
Connor Zamiara struck first for the Cru, sinking a jumper from inside the paint just seconds into the match up. Donta Coady followed with a layup to put the Cru up 4-0. The Polar Bears added two, but Elijah Lawrence went back-to-back to add four to the board, making it an 8-2 game. A three-pointer from Lawrence along with layups from Josiah Wray and Hudson Johnson gave UMHB a 17-10 upper hand. With the Cru up, Johnson added a three-pointer to make it a 24-12 game. ONU came within five of UMHB, but Daniel Hutson answered with a layup to move the score to 30-23. Johnson closed out the first half with two free throws, putting the Cru ahead 32-23 headed into half time.
Hudson Johnson and Elijah Lawrence led the Cru in the first frame with eight points each. Zach Engels led in rebounds, adding six.
Johnson and Engels opened with a free throw each, followed by back-to-back jumpers from Donta Coady and Engels to keep the Cru ahead 38-29. The Polar Bears fought back, cutting the deficit to just five, but Johnson followed with two free throws along with a Zamiara layup to extend the Cru's lead to 42-33. ONU added one, but UMHB went on a seven-point run with 13:20 remaining to make it a 49-34 game. The Polar Bears made it a five-point game again with 6:09 remaining. Josh Pearre answered, making a three-pointer to give UMHB a 63-56 margin. With 2:29 left to play, ONU added a three-pointer to make it a 66-63 game. Engels went to the line and got one back with a free throw. The Polar Bears made it a two-point separation with two free throws, but Johnson responded with a layup. Engels hit two more free throws to seal UMHB's 74-65 victory.
Hudson Johnson led the scoring for the Cru, putting up 21 points, along with four rebounds. Zach Engels added a double-double, tallying 16 points and 12 rebounds.
"This wasn't a pretty game at all, but I thought our toughness showed today in the win against a well-coached Ohio Northern team," Head Coach Sam Patterson said. "I am proud of hte way our guys responded down the stretch when our 15-point lead got trimmed to two. I think we found out a lot about the resiliency of this team in the last five minutes of this game. I'm not sure we would have won this one earlier in the season and I believe our ability to learn from past experiences helped us close this game with a win."
UMHB returns to action in Las Vegas on Tuesday, December 30th in a 6:00pm (PT)/8:00pm (CT) match up against University of Redlands.
"I love tournaments and events like this because it prepares you for postseason play," Patterson added. "If we want to cut down the nets on February 28th, we have to win back-to-back games in the ASC tournament. Events like this help us understand what it takes to do that and I think tomorrow will be a great test for us."
