Photo of Maurice Pinnock courtesy of Kodiak Creative/UMHB Athletics Department
BELTON — By halftime, it already had the makings of being a memorable night for Maurice Pinnock. And once the second half got going on Tuesday night, UMHB’s senior guard only advanced that storyline, filling up the stat sheet with a career-high 32 points and a perfect 7-of-7 mark from 3-point range.
“It was two good teams; 4-1 versus 5-0,” Pinnock said postgame. “I was just thinking about the team win and [the shots] just kept going in.”
Indeed they did, and St. Thomas struggled to defend not only Pinnock, but The Cru’s offense as a whole. UMHB men’s basketball outscored the Celts in both halves, rolling to a 78-53 win over a team that received the most points of any unranked team in Monday’s D3hoops.com Top 25 poll.
A 14-0 run late in the second half put the game away, as UMHB went from a 59-48 lead to a commanding 73-48 advantage…in the span of just three minutes, 54 seconds. Within that stretch, Pinnock came up with a steal on the defensive end, passed it up the court, and nine seconds later found the ball back in his hands on the left wing off a well-placed pass from Josh Goings.
There was no doubt the shot was going in as it arced towards the rim. A perfect swish, and a 16-point lead for The Cru. Pinnock was 4-for-4 from beyond the arc over the final 20 minutes, eclipsing his previous career-high of 20 points with a 3-pointer in front of the UMHB bench midway through the second half. And it seemed infectious, as the Crusaders were exceptional from long range against the Celts, connecting on 12 of their 18 3-point attempts, including seven of 10 in the second half.
“Every time you get a chance to sub [in] is a chance to get better,” Pinnock, who played 29 minutes off the bench, said of his role in providing a spark. “I’m just trying to come out there and bring the fight to them. It worked out.”
For as good as Pinnock was on the offensive end, going 11-of-15 from the field, 3-of-3 at the free throw line, and accounting for 41 percent of UMHB’s scoring, he contributed well to The Cru’s stellar defensive effort. In addition to his two steals—also a team-high—Pinnock blocked a layup from UST’s Nicholas Buffalo off the glass with 10:17 left. That piece of his performance cannot be overlooked, either, even in the midst of the shooting clinic he put on against the Celts.
“Everybody is going to point to his offense obviously, but defensively, he was all over the place,” UMHB head coach Clif Carroll added. “He got a lot of deflections, had a couple steals, and made some key rotations for us. I’m really proud of him. He’s stepping up and I pray he has a great senior year, because he could be a big key to a big run for us.”
Pinnock’s individual performance headlined an effort that truly went beyond just one player. The Crusaders’ intensity on the defensive end proved to be just as critical as any hot shooting stretch, with UMHB’s zone forcing the Celts into difficult and out-of-rhythm shots. That only compounded the effects of an already-challenging night on offense for UST, who entered Tuesday’s contest averaging 82.8 points per game, yet finished 29 points below that mark. The Celts had multiple open looks that were off by just a slight amount, and that added up. UST shot just 33.9 percent and recorded its lowest point total in a regular season game since Dec. 4, 2021, in a 59-51 loss to WashU. Coming into the game, the Celts had put fewer than 55 points on the board on only three occasions since the start of the 2021-22 season.
“I was way more impressed with us defensively,” Carroll said. “We had a few breakdowns, but for the most part, we stayed very connected, we covered up all the rotations, and we kept everybody in a position of strength. We didn’t have a whole lot of mismatches out there.”
Andrew Adebo, who finished with a team-high 12 points, scored eight of his 12 in the game’s first five minutes, giving the Celts an early 8-7 lead. He was UST’s lone scorer until Nicholas Buffalo’s jump shot fell through the net at the 11:55 mark of the first half, over eight minutes into the game, yet went quiet from a shooting standpoint for the rest of the first half and much of the second. And Adebo was the only UST player with a double-digit point total.
UST just didn’t find the kind of consistent offensive contributions needed to keep pace with The Cru, especially in the second half. UMHB outscored the Celts, 42-25, over the last 20 minutes, solidifying and expanding their lead as the clock ticked down. The Crusaders held a 36-28 halftime lead, thanks to Pinnock’s acrobatic reverse layup with nine seconds left, and fought against allowing that advantage to dwindle in the opening minutes of the second half.
“Historically, we’ve struggled here at Mary Hardin-Baylor with coming out of halftime,” Carroll noted. “I don’t know what it is. We’ve tried a lot of different things; the way we warm up, the way we handle it, what we talk about.
“And today, our first two possessions [of the second half] weren’t very good. We came out, turned it over, and they got a bucket. But we got it settled down. We have a deep team, and if we have a group that doesn’t have some electricity to them, we can sub and insert some energy into it.
“We’ve got a lot of guys hungry to play. So when we have some guys with an off night, maybe not playing with the energy they should, the next guy steps up. That’s what we built this team about.”
The energy and intensity has strongly contributed to the 5-1 start, with The Cru’s lone loss coming in the season opener at No. 1-ranked Trine. Holding a five-game win streak early in December is a far different feeling than where UMHB found itself at this same time a year ago. Last season, the first contest of December brought about a frustrating 88-82 loss at Concordia in a game UMHB had led by six at the half. It was The Cru’s fourth-straight loss, as they dropped to just 2-4, and within that skid was also an overtime loss at St. Thomas the day after Thanksgiving.
“Last year at this time was when we were struggling,” Carroll said. “I just didn’t feel like we played hard enough. That hasn’t been an issue at all this year. From Day 1, from the word ‘Go’, when these guys cross the white lines, they come to get after it. And it’s just not a couple guys, either. It’s a team buy-in. This team has been refreshing to coach, and the best part about it is, we’re only a fifth of the way through the season.”
Just as was the case last year, late November brought about a multi-week break of about 12 days in which UMHB didn’t step on the floor for a game. A full two weeks separated the Crusaders’ fourth and fifth games of this season, beating Texas Lutheran on Nov. 16 before resuming play this past Saturday at the College of Biblical Studies.
That sort of a pause from game action at such a critical time in the season has its potential challenges. Look no further than last year, when the Crusaders struggled to regain the rhythm and chemistry out of the break that they had on opening weekend at the Sikma Invitational, sinking well below .500.
But that was last year. UMHB is pushing full steam ahead out of the break this year, with two wins already and two opportunities later this week to add to it. The Cru hosts Concordia (TX) in Belton on Thursday night before heading to Abilene for a non-conference duel at McMurry. The month of December is sure to be critical for UMHB, considering the number of quality opponents ahead, and this team appears more than ready for that challenge.
“It’s an important time,” Carroll said of the finals break. “We have to take care of our academics, and it gives us a chance to reset and focus on what we’ve got to do better, but you kill your momentum. Then you go to Thanksgiving, and all your family is back at grandma’s house watching football, and you’re trying to get ready for a game. So you worry about that game [at the College of Biblical Studies].
“We didn’t really play that well, but it was just competitive, and we did things with our energy and effort and blew them out of the gym. To continue that here was a great sign. We’ve got a tough week, with Concordia [on Thursday]. We have to re-rack this thing and get ready for them. They’re always tough on us. Then we go to McMurry on Sunday and then get on a plane and head out to play some good teams in the Northwest.
“We’ve got to stay focused. We have to continue to take pride in what we’re doing and get better. But I really like where this team is at right now.”
