Dominance on the boards lifts UMHB women's basketball to 80-65 win over Trinity in home opener

BELTON — Rebounding has always been an emphasis point for Katie Novak-Lenoir’s teams. There is a reason why her teams in each of the last three years—2021-22 at Sul Ross State, 2022-23 at Hawaii Pacific, and 2023-24 at UMHB—ranked in the top half of their respective leagues in rebounding margin.

“I always love rebounding,” said Novak-Lenoir, in her second year as UMHB’s head coach. “It doesn’t matter how tall you are. [Rebounding] is always a controllable in my opinion. You can always go do your job and get a rebound.”

On Wednesday night, her team certainly took that philosophy to heart and executed it on the court, as UMHB women’s basketball dominated the boards en route to an 80-65 win over Trinity (TX). The Crusaders had more offensive rebounds, 30, than Trinity had total rebounds, 29. And the rebounding margin of +31 (60-29) in favor of UMHB was the largest in a single game for the program since a 91-46 defeat of Rust College on Dec. 10, 2016.

The rebounding was a notable difference from this season’s first meeting with Trinity, a 58-45 win for The Cru in San Antonio on Nov. 9. In that season-opening contest, UMHB out-rebounded the Tigers, but only by +5. And despite tallying 18 offensive rebounds in that one, the Crusaders scored just five second-chance points, unable to take advantage of their strength on the boards.

It was a very different dynamic Wednesday night, as UMHB’s 30 offensive boards translated into 31 second-chance points. The Cru was simply more aggressive when it came to collecting missed shots on both ends of the floor, out-jumping Trinity for numerous rebounds in addition to a handful of plays in which a Crusader just pulled the ball away from the fingertips of a Trinity player, keeping the offensive possession alive.

One of the best examples came at the 5:47 mark of the third quarter, when UMHB’s Karlee Cronk pulled down a missed shot from Josie Bruder, rebounded her own miss, then kicked it to the perimeter. Three passes later, Amillion Fowler swished a 3-pointer from the right corner, just a few steps in front of the Crusader bench, giving UMHB a 47-33 lead.

“I think we’ve changed a lot from the first game,” UMHB head coach Katie Novak-Lenoir said postgame, looking back on the season’s first win over Trinity. “We just have so many new people that we’re still trying to figure out who we are. And we’re so happy to play at home, to not have to travel and be playing on our home court.”

Wednesday marked UMHB’s home opener after five straight contests on the road, including last week’s trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado. There, The Cru was challenged in an 81-58 loss to Colorado College on Friday and bounced back Saturday with a 76-43 victory over Nebraska Wesleyan. Now 5-1, the matchup with Trinity was only the first in a line of top-tier opponents set to come UMHB’s way within the next three weeks.

Texas Lutheran, who is 5-1, comes to Belton Saturday, followed by a matchup at 14th-ranked Whitman on Dec. 12. Then it’s back to the Mayborn Campus Center on Dec. 17, as UMHB hosts No. 2-ranked Wartburg. McMurry won’t be an easy opponent the following day, either, as the Warhawks are 2-1 and lost by a single point to No. 18 Hardin-Simmons two weeks ago.

Facing Trinity, who recently went 3-0 in a series of games on the West Coast, only prepares UMHB for that coming schedule. As expected, Trinity pushed The Cru early on, and while UMHB led for roughly 82.5% of Wednesday’s game (33:03), the Tigers kept the pressure on, especially once they went to a full-court press in the second half. It was the same tactic Trinity head coach Cameron Hill used in last season’s NCAA Tournament matchup between the two, a game that was tied 34-34 at halftime but saw the Tigers force several late UMHB turnovers in a 75-71 win.

This time around, and even compared to the matchup against Trinity in November, the full-court press was less effective, with The Cru breaking it rather efficiently on most possessions, leading to several layups in transition. On one play with 9:19 left in the fourth quarter, Adyson James grabbed a defensive rebound and passed to Jaycie Brisco, who found Karlee Cronk ahead of the defense. The ball reached Cronk in stride for a layup that pushed UMHB’s lead back to double digits, 61-50.

“We didn’t necessarily practice it like we did the first time of just going against the press,” Novak-Lenoir said. “We’ve been practicing our fundamentals, like jump-stopping, doing drills making hard passes; basic stuff because that’s all it’s going to take [to break the press]. I think our communication is better now than it was a month ago.”

James highlighted UMHB’s individual efforts against the Tigers, putting up career-highs in points (24), rebounds (14), and minutes played (34). A sophomore forward, she was involved in much of what UMHB did on both ends of the floor, and provided the key offensive spark in a first half that saw points hard to come by. James tallied each of UMHB’s first seven points as The Cru went up 7-4, and had 10 points in the first quarter alone. By halftime, she had 13, and was the lone double-digit scorer for either team in the half. Her team-best nine offensive boards also played significantly into UMHB’s sizable margin in the rebounding category.

“She works hard every day,” Novak-Lenoir said of James. “The person you see in the game is the same person you see in practice every day. People love being on her team, because she’s positive, she’s upbeat, she’s willing to do whatever she needs to do. We feel very fortunate to have her.”

UMHB led 17-16 through the opening quarter, and held Trinity to just six points in the second. That 10-minute stretch prior to halftime saw the Tigers shoot just 1-of-14 from the field and go nearly five minutes without a point until Kylie Minter converted on a pair of free throws. UMHB struggled on the offensive end as well, converting on a mere four of 18 shots in that span. But The Cru had the better of the two lackluster offensive stretches, outscoring Trinity, 13-6, and leading 30-22 at the half.

Then things flipped once the third quarter began. Both teams surged in a quickened pace on the offensive end, with each scoring on three straight possessions in the span of just over a minute. Jose Napoli and Kylie Minter, two of Trinity’s more experienced starters, stepped up for the Tigers, even after UMHB widened its lead to 14. In Trinity’s best scoring run of the day, Minter gave the Tigers a layup, followed by consecutive 3s from Skye O’Rouke and Napoli, as UMHB’s lead fell to just five, 51-46. Trinity ended up outscoring its entire first half total in the third quarter alone, with 28 points.

But six straight points for The Cru after that spurt, capped by Jaycie Brisco’s lone 3-pointer of the day with 1:01 left in the quarter, pushed UMHB’s lead back to 11. Trinity never got the deficit to five points or fewer again, and for the final 9:19, the Crusaders’s advantage never dipped below 10.