Intense battle yields Top 10 win for UMHB men's basketball over No. 9 Illinois Wesleyan

BELTON — Few regular-season home wins in UMHB history can match the kind of performance that unfolded inside the Mayborn Campus Center on Monday evening between The Cru and No. 9 Illinois Wesleyan. It was the magnitude of the win. The prestige of the opponent. The memorable finish that made it an instant classic and drew eyes from across the nation as the clock ticked down and the lead swung back and forth.

Zachary Engels said it was a game UMHB had circled on its calendar since beating IWU in Bloomington, Illinois on the opening weekend of last season. And the Titans came to Belton fully remembering last year’s meeting, which created a high-level, postseason-type contest that saw four ties and five lead changes in the final four minutes.

It also saw UMHB emerge with a 78-77 victory in a nail-biter finish, as Engels’ go-ahead free throw with 3.8 seconds left was the late difference in a game that played out about as evenly as they come. Undoubtedly, it marks the biggest regular-season win in head coach Clif Carroll’s five years at the helm of the program.

“I hope there were eyes all over the country watching this game because that’s the way Division III basketball looks,” Carroll said afterwards. “That’s two big-boy teams playing physical basketball, making plays, competing, having fun with each other. That goes back to the respect I have for [IWU head coach] Ron [Rose] and that he has for us.”

“Coach was harping in the locker room all day that we’ve got to be team vs. team, our five vs. their five, and I think everybody’s mindset came out that we are one unit,” Engels commented postgame. “There were no personal agendas that people were trying to accomplish. It was a great team win for sure.”

With 11.1 seconds left, IWU’s Hakim Williams caught a pass on the right wing and drove into the paint, drawing a foul as his short floater off the glass fell through the net. The key shot knotted the score at 77 apiece, and after a missed free throw from Williams, the door opened for a game-winning opportunity for The Cru.

Eli Beard brought the ball to half-court before dishing a pass to Engels along the left wing. And Engels did exactly what did for much of the final five minutes. He put his shoulder down and drove hard towards the rim, lofting a well-placed shot through contact.

While the shot itself bounced twice on the rim and fell away, he drew a foul, earning two chances at the charity stripe. He needed a make on just one to put UMHB in front, and did so with a swish on his first attempt, pumping his right fist as it fell through.

“Zach is talented,” Carroll said. “He’s been struggling a little bit, and we’ve been bringing him off the bench. The fact that he can keep his head and regroup himself [is key]. He’s had a great couple days of practice. We trust Zach and our program is one that you have to earn things. He’s earned the right to take shots like that [on the last possession].”

Engels scored 13 of his season-high 19 points in the last five minutes, taking charge as The Cru traded scores with the Titans down the stretch. He finished 8-of-12 shooting, twice giving UMHB the lead after the score was tied within the final 3:55, including on a jumper at the 32-second mark. Even prior to that, the Austin native drove to the paint with one minute left, stopped on a dime, and flipped a pass to Connor Zamiara, whose short-range jumper pushed UMHB’s lead to 75-72.

He impacted the game at its most crucial point after seeing the floor for just 4:37 in the first half, scoring only two points in that stretch.

“At halftime, Eli came up to me and said, ‘Zach, you’re one of the strongest, most physical guys I’ve ever been able to play with. Go out there and use it,’” Engels said. “I really took it to heart. I knew in order for us to be successful, with how much they were face-guarding Eli and how physical they were with our guards that it was my time to start being aggressive, getting downhill and taking those shots.”

Beard’s halftime encouragement sheds light on a critical, yet overlooked aspect of UMHB’s final offensive possession, the one that culminated with Engels getting to the free throw line. With little time left on the clock, it seemed Beard, The Cru’s go-to shot-maker, would be set up to take UMHB’s final shot. Maybe a dribble-drive jumper. Or a step-back 3.

But instead, Beard made an unselfish decision, and one that quickly proved to be the correct one. After UMHB as a unit struggled with its offensive cohesiveness in the second half of Sunday’s win over Concordia Moorhead, the fact that Beard recognized Engels was in better position and passed the ball—rather than holding onto it—is a testament to the kind of chemistry the Crusaders have worked towards, and certainly to Beard’s team-first attitude.

“That’s when you start seeing the mark of a player that is getting truly great; when he trusts a teammate,” Carroll said. “Zach had it rolling and had a little momentum, and Eli gave it up.

“I looked Eli right in the eyes [before the play]. He said, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘Go get the ball and win the game.’ And he gave it to Zach. Those are all moments that we’re going to look at if we have the type of season we’re capable of having. Those are special moments. I can think back to the Elite Eight year, the Sweet Sixteen year, and the times that Josiah [Johnson] did that, Ty Price did that. Eli has become one of the special ones around here.”

Eli Beard’s pass to Zachary Engels, leading to Engels’ go-ahead free throw with 3.8 seconds left

Beard did plenty of scoring himself too, putting up a team-high 22 points on a day when five of his eight 3-point attempts fell through the net. He provided the early spark that led to The Cru’s statement start, hitting a 3 from at least five feet beyond the arc, just a step in front of the large UMHB logo at midcourt. A steal and coast-to-coast layup from Josh Goings followed just 12 seconds after Beard’s 3, and then it was Beard on the assist, lobbing a pass over the head of Williams to B.J. Anderson, who converted on a turnaround jumper. UMHB scored on each of its first four possessions, racing out to a 9-2 lead that left Rose with no option but to call a timeout and refocus his team just 2:02 into the contest.

As the first half wore on, the Titans slowly found a rhythm, though they trailed for all but 1:45 of the opening 20 minutes. Josh Fridman, IWU’s true freshman point guard, gave the visitors from Bloomington one of those brief spans with the lead at the 10:15 mark, putting IWU up 18-15 on a 3-pointer. But a 12-5 run from UMHB followed, with Beard, unsurprisingly, accounting for five of those points. IWU turned it over six times in the span of just over four-and-a-half minutes, as The Cru went up 27-20. Beard’s fourth 3-pointer of the half came a little under two minutes later, and earned UMHB its largest lead of the first 20 minutes, 34-23.

Then came IWU’s big run. The Titans scored the game’s next 10 points, eventually tying the score at 36-36 on Trey Bazzell’s 3 with 22 seconds left. It set the stage for a second half in which the final 10 minutes unfolded with neither side ever leading by more than three points. At the game’s most crucial juncture, every possession presented a chance to take the lead, or at the very least, tie the score with a shot from 3-point range.

Just as they had done in the second half of Sunday’s 85-67 win over LeTourneau, IWU attacked the boards over the final 20 minutes against UMHB, fully utilizing the strength and size that helped lift the Titans to early non-conference wins over No. 2 WashU and No. 5 UW-Platteville. In the first half, IWU tallied just three offensive rebounds for five second-chance points. In the second, it was nine offensive boards and eight points from those. The Titans out-rebounded UMHB by +6 in the second half, yet it was the Crusaders who scored more from inside, tallying 42 points in the paint to IWU’s 34. The Titans made it difficult on UMHB, especially from a rebounding standpoint, but for the Crusaders to neutralize some of that size difference—four of the 10 Titans to see action stood 6’6 or above—was crucial.

“You go through some of the battles we went through with Cal Lutheran, Transy, and now here with bigger teams, it’s just going to make us better,” Carroll said. “We won’t have sticker shock when we get to the tournament and we run into guys like that. We’ve proved that we can play at this level.”

On the perimeter, UMHB’s defensive intensity was just as noteworthy. Even as IWU kept pace with The Cru down the stretch, the Titans were ineffective from long-range, going just 3-of-16 from beyond the 3-point arc in the second half. Their 3-point shooting percentage of 25% for the game (7-of-28) tied a season-low, identically matching the 3-point percentage in their only previous loss of the season against Carthage.

“Our primary focus all year has been defensively, make them beat us from the outside,” Engels said. “We can live with them taking 30 contested 3s every game versus dumping it in for a wide-open layup. Carroll always likes to say, ‘Force them into a 30-40% shot rather than an 80% shot.’ That’s been our mentality all year.”

As Carroll discussed the win postgame, it was clear how much the victory meant. Sure, IWU is the No. 9 team in the country, and a Top 10 win anywhere, especially at home, holds great significance. But it goes deeper than that for Carroll, who has said since his days at Sul Ross State that he has admired Ron Rose’s Illinois Wesleyan program from afar. The respect level between the two head coaches is high, and that made Monday’s win that much more impactful for Carroll.

“In my opinion, he’s the gold standard of Division III,” Carroll said. “When we build our program, we want to build it just like Illinois Wesleyan. I don’t hide from that fact, and I probably don’t tell him ‘thank you’ enough for how he’s helped me by being a great example. So to get the chance to compete with him is special. And then to win…that’s a special game in my career.”

UMHB has a multi-week break before returning to action at UT-Dallas on Jan. 16 in Richardson, Texas. UTD, who is transitioning to Division II but remains part of the American Southwest Conference slate for this season, is 6-6 overall.