Third-quarter surge carries UMHB women's basketball to 74-56 win at Concordia (TX)

Photo by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru/LukeZayasMedia

AUSTIN — It took time for UMHB to gain separation on Monday night, as Concordia (TX) kept pace with The Cru through the first half.

The Tornados led on two occasions in the second quarter, and even after UMHB (11-4) widened its advantage to nine with 3:45 left in the second, Concordia (5-4) responded. The visitors from Belton took a 34-27 lead into the half.

But everything changed in the first five minutes of the second half. The Cru came out of the intermission with a renewed intensity, found rhythm on the offensive end, and scored 18 of the next 21 points, gaining a commanding 52-30 lead. UMHB controlled the contest from there, leading by as many as 26 points on the path to securing a 74-56 win on the road.

“We came out after halftime with a fire we needed,” UMHB head coach Katie Novak-Lenoir said postgame, with her team now 11-4 overall. “I’m really happy with the way we shared the ball. As we keep learning each other more, I hope to keep improving on that. We had a lot of great hustle moments and took advantage of our teammates who had hot hands. It was a good building game to get ready to go into conference play soon.”

The sharing of the ball led to a season-best 22 assists for The Cru, their second-straight game with at least 20. The last time UMHB had consecutive games of 20 or more assists was a road stretch in early January last season, when the Crusaders dished out 20 in a four-point road win at Hardin-Simmons and followed with 21 in a 108-96 victory over McMurry two days later.

Eight of those assists on Monday night came in the third quarter, as the Crusaders shot 9-of-13 from the field and accounted for nearly half of their 3-point total for the game. UMHB was 3-of-6 from beyond the arc in the 10 minutes coming out of halftime, and made seven 3s in the win.

That directly correlated to Katelen Brooks’ strongest offensive stretch as well, with the junior guard accounting for all three of UMHB’s third-quarter 3s. She followed up a career-high 25-point performance in last Friday’s victory over UC-Santa Cruz with another performance to remember, putting up 25 points on an evening that saw her shoot 11-of-16 from the field. The Corpus Christi native was responsible for half of UMHB’s 26 points in the third, and in The Cru’s 16-0 run that began the second half, Brooks had 10 points.

It started with The Cru’s first possession of the second half, a play that saw her score in just eight seconds. Rachel Okoye caught the inbounds pass a midcourt from Josie Bruder, passed to Jaycie Brisco, who found Brooks with her back to the basket in the low post. Brooks turned and hit a jumper over the head of Concordia’s Madison Martinez, and followed with a 3-pointer from the left wing on UMHB’s fourth possession.

She proved to be a difficult matchup for Concordia’s defenders all night, both when creating her own shot through dribbling and driving to the rim, as well as connecting on perimeter shots within the flow of UMHB’s offense. With 7:36 left in the third, Brooks received a pass from Bruder on the wing—just as she did less than a minute prior on a 3-pointer—and faked the shot, driving to her right against Martinez. She dribbled hard along the baseline before spinning to her left and lofting a short jumper in the paint. It extended the Crusader lead to 46-37, and 54 seconds later, Brooks’ second 3 of the quarter swished through the net.

The offensive chemistry seen in the early portion of the third was the best it was all night for the visitors from Belton, though The Cru consistently put points on the board throughout all four quarters. For the first time since beating Trinity, 80-65, on Dec. 4, they put together consecutive 20-point quarters, combining for 46 points between the second and third against Concordia.

UMHB’s first two-possession lead came at the 5:23 mark of the opening period, as the Tornados kept pace and led, 6-4, through the first three minutes. But The Cru rattled off six straight points, going up 10-6 on a jumper from Brooks and the first of Okoye’s six assists. It followed that back-and-forth pattern through the second quarter, with a 3-pointer from Concordia’s Kayla Stainthorp putting the hosts in front, 15-14, before UMHB took back the lead with three straight points at the free throw line. In all, four lead changes highlighted the second, before a 3 from Okoye gave The Cru the lead for good. Okoye tallied seven straight points in UMHB’s first notable scoring spurt, giving her team breathing room and a 24-18 lead by the 6:20 mark.

Defensively, UMHB’s 1-3-1 zone caused trouble for Concordia through much of the contest. The Tornados struggled in driving past UMHB’s guards, turning it over several times as the Crusader defender came up with a steal. For the most part, the Tornados were limited to mid-range and 3-point shots, unable to get 5’10 forward Kiki Gonzales many opportunities in the paint. Concordia’s first significant scoring drought coincided with Okoye’s 7-0 run in the second, as the Tornados went 4:21 without putting points on the board, missing six straight shots. In the third, Concordia went over four minutes without scoring, watching UMHB’s lead widen to 20, and over the entire second half, the Tornados recorded just four layups.

The Crusaders’ defensive presence—having held their third-straight opponent below 60 points—carried over into the rebounding as well, with UMHB dominating the glass for a +22 rebounding margin. Rebounding is an emphasis point in Novak-Lenoir’s program, and for the third time this season, her team out-rebounded an opponent by at least 20, grabbing 54 boards to Concordia’s 32. That included eight apiece from Okoye and Bruder, holding the Tornados to their second-lowest offensive rebounding total in a game this season (6).

UMHB now enters a 10-day break from game action before resuming on Jan. 16 at UT-Dallas. UTD, who is reclassifying to Division II, will play the ASC schedule this season but be ineligible for the conference and NCAA tournaments. The Comets are 9-5 overall and 9-0 against Division III competition.