Challenged by a lack of depth, UMHB women’s basketball finishes 1-1 at Cru Classic

File photo by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru

BELTON — Heading into Wednesday’s de-facto championship game at the Cru Classic, there was no question that a lack of depth would challenge UMHB. Faced with going to a rotation of just seven players for the second-straight day, and already feeling the fatigue of storming back from a 19-point deficit to upset Wartburg just 24 hours prior, The Cru dug deep for four quarters against McMurry. 

But it ultimately caught up with them down the stretch. An inability to drive to the rim against McMurry’s zone defense, combined with a stellar final six minutes from the Warhawks—who connected on four 3-pointers in that span—left The Cru on the losing end of a 74-64 result. 

“I told them, there’s no excuse, both teams are playing back-to-back,” UMHB head coach Katie Novak-Lenoir said postgame. “But we have had a couple rough weeks, even practice-wise, of being very low in numbers. I feel like the physical was affecting us being more aggressive, knowing that we weren’t that deep today.”

The depth issues stemmed from both injury and illness, a significant amount being short-term departures from the rotation. The challenge was that several of those came up at the same time, creating a situation where Novak-Lenoir was very limited in who she could bring off the bench on back-to-back days, never an easy situation to contend with. Just six Crusaders saw the floor in the second half, and due to foul trouble, Rachel Okoye, who had 22 points in the win over Wartburg, played less than a minute in the fourth quarter before fouling out. 

“Right after break will be a good shift for us physically, because we’ve got a couple additional people coming back that have been out for a long time and their clearance is right after break,” Novak-Lenoir added. “We’re looking forward to that.” 

Even with those challenges, UMHB battled through. McMurry jumped out to an early 4-0 lead on consecutive scores from leading scorer Kylie Flippin, and led 19-17 through the first 10 minutes, though Josie Bruder gave The Cru its first lead just over a minute into the second quarter. Bruder, who was 11-of-13 at the free throw line and had 23 points off the bench, made back-to-back free throws just after a jumper from Adyson James.

That sparked a 17-2 run from UMHB, the Crusaders’ strongest offensive stretch of the contest, as they took a 12-point lead in the span of just over five minutes. Katelen Brooks highlighted the spurt, connecting on a pair of high-arcing 3s from the left wing. Her second triple put UMHB up 34-22, leaving McMurry head coach Drew Long with no choice but to call a timeout and regroup. 

“That’s one thing we talked about going back in the locker room [at halftime],” Long said later. “We thought UMHB was the aggressor in the first half, we thought they were the tougher team, and we really challenged our girls to rise to the occasion.” 

That scoring run put The Cru up 41-35 at the half, and the two sides were dead-even through the third quarter, each putting up 14 points. In the fourth, UMHB still led, with McMurry twice cutting the deficit to four, only for the Crusaders to counter with a bucket of their own. But the third time around, the Warhawks broke through. Karrigan Parrott, McMurry’s biggest contributor off the bench with nine points, hit a 3-pointer with 5:18 left, cutting the lead to one.

Then, after Karlee Cronk’s offensive rebound and putback on the other end, Flippin connected on another McMurry 3. Holland’s go-ahead shot from beyond the arc fell through with 3:30 to go, as she took a baseline pass from Flippin and gave McMurry a 64-61 lead just a few steps in front of her team’s bench. It turned out to be an 11-0, game-sealing run for the visiting Warhawks, the lone squad at the four-team Cru Classic to leave Belton with a 2-0 record on the week.

“With the fatigue, and the foul trouble for Rachel especially, that hurt not having her on the floor,” Novak-Lenoir said when asked about the 11-0 run. “We made the smart call to sit Amillion [Fowler] today, but not having that defensive presence was tough.” 

UMHB’s final eight shots from the field were off the mark, scoring just three points—all at the free throw line—in the final 4:50. That went back to what Novak-Lenoir referenced in saying the physical fatigue affected UMHB’s aggressiveness late, as the Crusaders struggled in finding quality shots while McMurry made its run. McMurry’s defensive intensity certainly played into that as well, with the Warhawks’ zone defense giving The Cru few chances to get any kind of short-range opportunities. 

“With them having physical guards and being able to get downhill, we got in foul trouble early on with some of our starters,” Long noted. “So we’ll sprinkle that [zone defense] in every once in a whilke, just to give some relief and give them a different look. Every couple minutes, I turned to my assistant and said, ‘Should we go back [to man defense] or stay [in zone]?’ He was like, ‘Let’s stay with it.’”

Sticking with it paid dividends for McMurry, who is now 5-1. The Warhawks look ahead to three non-conference games between Dec. 29 and Jan. 4 before opening the league schedule in their inaugural season in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC). Holland and Flippin had 22 and 20 points, respectively, each playing all 40 minutes in Wednesday’s win. Eight of Holland’s 22 came in the 11-0 fourth-quarter run. 

“I just told them in the locker room, ‘Hey, those are practice shots. Step up and shoot it with confidence,’” Long said, referencing his team shooting just 38.2% in the first half, but 50.0% in the second. “Basketball is a great game and sometimes the percentages play out for you. It was a good team win. We got some good effort off the bench, and I couldn’t be happier with the way they stuck it out.” 

For UMHB, who dropped to 8-3 overall, it marks another opportunity for growth. They’ve been continually developing chemistry over the first six weeks of the regular season with several newcomers in the mix, and playing twice in just over 24 hours for the third time this season pushes a team even further, even when doing so with such limited depth.

“It’s a learning experience,” Novak-Lenoir said. “McMurry is playing really well. We knew this was going to be a hard one today.”