ABILENE, Texas- On the road against the first-place team in the American Southwest Conference, the UMHB men’s basketball team posted its second 90+ point performance of the season, but struggled defensively in a 103-92 loss to Hardin-Simmons on Thursday night.
In many ways, the question for UMHB (7-7, 3-4 ASC) entering the duel was what the response would be to Saturday’s 91-75 loss at home to UT-Dallas, a contest in which the Crusaders led 43-39 at halftime, but gave up 52 second-half points.
And the response saw a handful of positives on the offensive end, as UMHB–the league’s lowest shooting team at 41.2 percent entering the matchup–converted on 46.8 percent of its shots. The Cru surpassed the 90-point mark for the second time this season, and tallied 40 points in the paint, finding several scoring opportunities at the rim.
“We’re just trying to tweak things,” UMHB head coach Clif Carroll said postgame. “We’re going more of a traditional motion, and had some growing pains tonight, but some of it looked good. We found some shots at the rim that we hadn’t been getting. We just have to continue to work, put ourselves in good positions, and defensively, find a way to stay in stance and work and fight for each other.”
Much like in Saturday’s loss, the Crusaders surrendered a high scoring total in the second half, after trailing by a slim, 43-41 margin at halftime. On this particular night, HSU (12-2, 6-0 ASC) tallied 60 points over the final 20 minutes, pulling away from The Cru, as Cowboys finished 10-of-28 from 3-point range.
After UMHB’s Josiah Johnson cut the deficit back to two, 50-48, less than three minutes into the second half, HSU countered with a key scoring run that gave the Cowboys separation for the first time. Consecutive layups from Jason Justice and Austin Brewer’s 3-pointer put the hosts in front, 57-48, as Carroll was forced to use a timeout.
But the lead widened quickly, expanding to 15 points twice over the final 11 minutes, as HSU kicked its offense into high gear. The Cowboys, unafraid to play with pace, pushed the ball in transition, challenging the Crusader defense as the ball moved upcourt. HSU tallied 23 fast-break points in the win, and overall, kept the pace quick as the Cowboys maintained their lead.
“We let Hardin-Simmons get a lot of easy buckets on us by getting out and running and being more aggressive,” Carroll noted. “We weren’t getting back. We weren’t doing a good job of getting a set defense and Hardin-Simmons took advantage of that.”
UMHB also turned the ball over 18 times in the loss, which contributed to HSU’s ability to push the ball in transition and capitalize on fast-break opportunities.
Ultimately, Carroll is looking for better overall effort from his squad, who heads into Saturday’s matchup at McMurry (7-6, 2-4 ASC) with a 2-6 record on the road this season. After the loss to UTD, improving the effort was one of Carroll’s main focuses, and it remains a work in progress.
“I love these guys, and it’s just really hard as a coach,” Carroll said. “Can’t figure it out. I want them to play well and play harder. We’re trying, and mixing up defenses and lineups, but we just have to win. It’s frustrating.”
HSU, being the class of the league thus far, is certainly an adequate measuring stick for any team to test itself against. UMHB’s performance in Abilene saw The Cru give up eight points in the first two minutes, but reset and fight back through the remainder of the first half, securing a 39-38 lead on Payton Brooks’ layup with 1:36 left in the period. Stretches such as that one–a 13-3 scoring spurt–were notable positives in light of the loss.
But in a deep league that sees only the top six teams make the conference tournament, finding a way into the win column remains imperative. UMHB currently finds itself in a three-way tie for fourth place with ETBU and Concordia (TX) also sitting at 3-4.
“We have to find a way to get some stops,” Carroll said when asked about Saturday’s duel at McMurry. “We’ll be fine everywhere else, but we have to get some stops. I have to find lineups that’ll play hard together and stay connected defensively.”
Eli Beard led UMHB’s scoring effort on Thursday night with 26 points, a season-high for the junior, as he shot 3-of-7 from beyond the arc. Johnson added a double-double, with 23 points and 12 rebounds, and Zachary Engels tallied 14 points and eight rebounds off the bench.
Justice was HSU’s high-scorer, with 30 points. Will Bartoszek, the ASC’s leader in points per game, had 21 in the victory, and Brewer finished with a 14-point, 11-rebound double-double.
UMHB’s matchup at McMurry tips off at 3 p.m. on Saturday in Abilene. McMurry beat Concordia (TX), 97-84, on Thursday night.
