Above photo: Eli Beard had 26 points in UMHB’s 63-47 win on Sunday (photo by Luke Zayas/LukeZayasMedia)
LEXINGTON, Kentucky — After dropping Saturday’s opener at the Don Lane Classic in a 73-60 loss to Transylvania, Clif Carroll made it clear that more energy would be needed from his team on Sunday against Albion.
And he got exactly that from his squad, especially on the defensive end. They affected Albion’s offensive flow possession after possession, deflecting passes, forcing the Britons into difficult shots, and holding them to just 20 points in the paint.
That defensive intensity, starting with Albion’s first possession, led to early momentum for UMHB. After Albion scored the game’s first point on a free throw, the Crusaders tallied the next 10, making four of their next six shots while holding Albion to five consecutive misses. That 10-0 run gave way to an eventual 26-8 lead for The Cru, who maintained that advantage en route to a 63-47 victory.
“I really challenged them today,” Carroll said postgame. “We needed to play harder, and needed to execute better defensively. We had some better defensive lineups in there, which turned into better connectivity.”
The victory snapped a two-game losing skid for The Cru, who head into Christmas break sitting at 9-3 overall. Considering nine of those 12 contests have been played away from Belton, including each of the last five, it is a more than respectable mark as ASC play approaches. Sunday marked the second time this season that The Cru answered a challenging loss with a solid neutral-court win less than 24 hours later.
“You try to take keys from all different situations to figure out what kind of team you are,” Carroll said. “After really getting beat-up by Trine [in the season opener], we beat a good team (Heidelberg) the next day on short rest. So we knew that we were capable of coming out and playing well today.
“This has been a long stretch. Since Thanksgiving, we’ve been through it. I think we had four games in eight days and then went and got on a plane to Washington, and then got on a plane and came here. Yesterday, I don’t think we brought the right mindset. We let fatigue make us a coward. Today, we set that aside. Getting into the rotations like I did helped. We were able to play in short spurts to lengthen the timestamp of playing and keep everybody a little more energized.”
The defensive performance saw UMHB hold an opponent below 50 points for just the second time in the last decade, both of which have come during Carroll’s time leading the program. Albion shot just 27.8 percent, 4-of-25 from 3-point range, and were forced into 17 turnovers.
The slower pace of play also contributed to UMHB holding the Britons to just 47 points, tying for the lowest offensive output by an opponent in the last decade. Howard Payne had just 47 points in UMHB’s 95-47 win on Feb. 4, 2023.
“In Texas, you get so many possessions, and we’ve been really good offensively,” Carroll said, noting that the opponent also has more scoring opportunities as a result. “We’re not a slow-down offensive team. So that’s where points per game don’t really match our true output.
“Today was good. The guys were really locked in. Albion is a good team from a good league, so to hold them to that kind of shooting percentage is really impressive.”
What made it even more impressive was that they did it even while going deep into the rotation, as 16 different Crusaders saw the floor. Using that many players wasn’t a surprise; Carroll said Saturday that due to fatigue and playing their second game in 24 hours, he would be looking to use his roster’s depth more against Albion. Even as Carroll went to various lineups and cycled through the rotation, the defensive effort remained intact, keeping UMHB in front by double digits for all but 14 seconds of the second half.
“Everybody that crossed the white lines today really competed and did some good things,” Carroll noted. “We made it tough for Albion to run any kind of offense. We were tipping passes and gettling in passing lanes. Our close-outs on the 3s were really good. That’s what our team should be able to do. We should be able to play 11, 12, 13 guys who get in there, play really hard, get stops, and get a rotation to keep everybody fresh.”
UMHB found its rhythm early, first seen in the 10-0 spurt over the game’s opening five minutes. Then came a 16-4 run, the answer to a 3-pointer from Albion’s Kurtis Rhodes with 13:28 left in the half. Josh Goings rose up with a jump shot on The Cru’s very next possession, and over the next 5:14, there was little Albion could do to slow down the rapid momentum building in UMHB’s favor.
Eli Beard, the game’s high-scorer with 26 points, had six of the 16 points in that stretch. With 8:14 left, the senior guard hit a 3-pointer off Connor Zamiara’s pass, pushing UMHB’s lead to 18. And that came just 61 seconds after Coco Rose buried a shot of his from beyond the arc.
At that point, Rose was UMHB’s top scorer, having reached double-digits in the first 11 minutes. The McMurry transfer gave The Cru a solid 13 minutes off the bench, scoring 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Four of the 11 players off the bench scored, with Rose being far and away UMHB’s most productive scorer of that group.
The strong start offensively was also amongst the biggest positives in UMHB’s performance. The Cru was just 9-of-44 in the second half and a mere 30.7 percent from the field on Saturday, but in the same gym, Sunday’s win saw notable differences. They ran the offense more fluidly, showed patience in waiting for shots to develop, and most importantly, took advantange of the chance to drive the ball to the rim.
While Saturday’s game was more physical in the paint, with UMHB’s opportunities for layups and short-range jumpers limited by Transy’s defensive presence in the post, Albion’s defensive approach allowed The Cru to spread the Britons out, opening the door to more chances to the drive ball from the perimeter.
“We had a little better matchup offensively than what we did yesterday,” Carroll noted. “Transylvania was able to go man for man and be really physical. We had to play a very physical game yesterday. Today, we were able to get more dribble-drive offense going. That’s more of our comfort zone.
“If we look at what we can take away from the last two games, we have to learn to play with teams that can take away the dribble-drive. We have to find a different way to score. But this afternoon was a day where we could really get our matchups, find our matches, and attack them.”
It wasn’t only dribble-drive action that put UMHB in a better spot offensively, though. Along with that, and creating scoring opportunities from turnovers, The Cru moved the ball around the perimeter better, staying patient as they found quality shots. After leading 35-22 at halftime, UMHB scored on three straight possessions in the first 2:30 of the second half, two of which were 3-pointers from Jerry Day Jr. and Beard. Being capable of scoring on a driving layup as well as a 3-point shot made UMHB that much more dangerous, as the Crusaders built an 18-point lead by the 17:47 mark.
“We’re still a work in progress offensively,” Carroll added. “We can be very explosive, but we have to be multiple also. We have to be able to score on different platforms and in different ways. We can’t just rely on putting our head down and getting to the rim all the time. We learned that yesterday. Hopefully we’ll be better for it, and it’ll show up in the next couple weeks as we play some good competition and go into ASC play.”
Albion cut the second-half deficit to one just once, getting the UMHB lead down to nine with 6:49 left. But The Cru responded with a 14-7 run, closing the game on yet another surge as they went back up by 18 with 1:49 to go.
UMHB will take a short break for Christmas before returning to action at the Mayborn Campus Center for the Cru Classic on Dec. 29-30. The Cru opens the multi-team event with a 4 p.m. matchup on Dec. 29 against Concordia-Moorhead before getting their second Top 10-test of non-conference play against No. 9 Illinois Wesleyan at 4 p.m. on Dec. 30.
UMHB stat leaders
Points: Eli Beard (26), Coco Rose (12), Josh Goings (8)
Rebounds: Eli Beard (6), B.J. Anderson (6), Donta Coady (6)
Assists: Josh Goings (5), Eli Beard (2)
| Box Score | 1st | 2nd | Final |
| UMHB (9-3) | 35 | 28 | 63 |
| Albion (4-5) | 22 | 25 | 47 |
