BELTON, Texas- Non-conference play is drawing to a close for the Mary Hardin-Baylor men’s basketball team, as the Crusaders’ final home game of the calendar year is set for Tuesday afternoon. UMHB (5-5, 2-2 ASC) hosts Berry College (2-5, 0-1 SAA) at 2 p.m. CT on Tuesday inside the Mayborn Campus Center, and The Cru looks to maintain its perfect record in Belton. UMHB has not lost a regular season home game since Dec. 29, 2022, with 10 straight regular season home wins.
This preview is presented by Cornerstone Site Services
The Series
This marks the first-ever meeting between UMHB and Berry, programs who have both enjoyed exceptional postseason success in recent years.
The Vikings have played in the Southern Athletic Association Tournament championship game in each of the last four seasons, having won two of them. During the 2021-22 season, Berry defeated Oglethorpe, 63-62, for the league title and advanced to the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Last season, the Vikings went 25-3 overall and won the SAA regular season crown, but missed the national tournament in a four-point loss to Sewanee in the SAA tournament final.
UMHB reached the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament in both 2022 and 2023, and won the American Southwest Conference regular season title in each of those years. The Cru also won the 2022 ASC Tournament Championship.
In the program’s D-III history, UMHB is 2-1 all-time against institutions currently in the SAA, having gone 1-1 against Millsaps, and 1-0 against Hendrix. Two of those three meetings came in the month of December.
Scouting Berry
The Vikings entered the season with lofty expectations, as 2023 SAA Player of the Year Chase Ellis and 2023 SAA Defensive Player of the Year Braxton Benham both returned from a team that went 25-3 last season. In total, four players who averaged over 20 minutes per game returned this season for head coach Mick Hedgepeth’s squad.
Ellis currently leads the team in points, averaging 19.3 per game. Benham is Berry’s second-leading scorer, at 15.7 points, in addition to his 3.14 steals per game, which ranks 10th in the nation. And 6-foot-6 junior guard/forward Jacob Morgan has been an impact transfer for the Vikings, coming in from NCAA Division II Emory & Henry. Morgan is averaging 13.1 points per game and has shot 14-of-34 from 3-point range this season.
Despite a handful of setbacks, Berry has pushed forwards and is looking to get back in the win column in Belton. The Vikings come off a string of three straight losses, the latter two of which came by a combined seven points to Maryville and Oglethorpe. Berry’s two victories thus far came against Southern Virginia and LaGrange. Tuesday’s game marks the Vikings’ first contest in 16 days, having had a two-week break after the conference opener against Oglethorpe on Dec. 2.
A look at The Cru
UMHB has dealt with inconsistencies throughout the first two months of this season, starting 2-0 with wins over UW-Stout and Illinois Wesleyan before dropping four straight games against Texas Lutheran, St. Thomas (TX), Trinity (TX), and Concordia. The Crusaders got back on track two weeks ago with a 2-0 week in conference play that included a win over ASC Preseason favorite East Texas Baptist, and went 1-1 last week against Howard Payne and Sul Ross State.
The Crusaders enter this contest at .500 overall, however, and are looking to find a rhythm heading into the heart of their ASC schedule. Josiah Johnson leads the offensive attack with 18.3 points per game, and Eli Beard has proven to be a strong addition to the backcourt. Beard scored 24 points against SRSU on Saturday, and is averaging 14.6 points per contest. Ryan Pondant, another newcomer, is contributing well in the post, and grabbed 14 rebounds in 31 minutes last Saturday. The 6-foot-8 forward has shown great strength on both ends of the floor, especially in the rebounding battle, and could be a matchup issue for Berry at that spot.
As a team, UMHB has the highest free throw shooting percentage in the ASC, at 78.3 percent, and shot above 73 percent from the charity stripe in each of its last four games. That remains a major strength for The Cru, and could give UMHB an edge in this matchup, especially as Berry’s opponents have recorded at least 12 free throw attempts in six of the Vikings’ seven contests this season. Finding consistent scoring remains a focus for UMHB, who has struggled at times on the offensive end and enters Tuesday’s game with a shooting percentage of 40.9 percent. Improving that seems to start with more passes per possession, something that served UMHB well against SRSU on Saturday, as The Cru dished out 16 assists against the Lobos.
“We really tried to be more balanced, move the ball better, and find better shots for each other,” Carroll said of the ball movement from his team on the offensive end against SRSU. “It showed up tonight. Sometimes, we take way too many shots off of zero and one passes. That needed to change.”
Follow the action
Watch the game live on cruathletics.com, with Jordan Cox (play-by-play) and Carey Leech (color commentary) on the call. Live stats can also be found on cruathletics.com. Admission to Tuesday’s contest is free.
