UMHB men's basketball edged by UT-Dallas in 72-69 loss, Focus now shifts towards ASC opener

Photo by Luke Zayas/@lukezayas_photography

RICHARDSON, Texas — Since Christmas, Clif Carroll and his team have taken the floor for a game just three times. The Cru played on consecutive days in late December, going 2-0 at the Cru Classic, including a massive 78-77 win over ninth-ranked Illinois Wesleyan.

Then 16 more days passed before Thursday rolled around and UMHB made the drive north for a non-conference matchup against former ASC member UT-Dallas, who is transitioning to Division II. Few teams in college basketball are ever forced to contend with a 16-day break between games, especially as the calendar turns to the month of January.

Inevitably, it affected the rhythm and timing, particularly in a first half that saw The Cru shoot 39.3% and go 1-for-6 from 3-point range. While not an excuse, there’s no question that it was a factor in a game ultimately decided in the final minute, and won by UTD, 72-69.

“The layoff did us no good,” Carroll said after the three-point loss. “This is our third game since December 23. It’s a long time, and you shape it as, ‘Hey, we’re going to sharpen our tools.’ But it’s hard when you get a big win over Illinois Wesleyan, and now you have two weeks to really think you’re a lot better than what you really are. And the motivation in practice went down.”

They were still right there when it mattered most, though. With 8:26 left in the second half, UTD’s Matthew Soto caught a pass on the left wing in front of his team’s bench. He pump-faked a 3-point shot to throw off B.J. Anderson, who was guarding him, then stepped to his left and connected on what became a wide-open 3. It gave the Comets their second 11-point lead of the half, putting UTD in front, 62-51.

Then UMHB went to work. The Cru scored 18 of the game’s next 28 points in the span of 7:55, shooting 6-of-10 with eight points from Eli Beard, who was held quiet for much of the night. On the defensive end, the visitors from Belton held UTD to a 3-of-12 shooting mark in that crucial stretch, and three of UTD’s next 10 points came at the free throw line.

“It was a tough night, but we were there at the end of the game and still had a chance to win,” Carroll noted. “We had a great shot there at the end to tie it and had we gone to overtime, I would’ve felt good about it.”

With 49 seconds left, UMHB’s Josh Goings took a handoff at the top of the arc from Ryan Pondant and drove to his right, pulling up his dribble from about 13 feet away. He buried the jumper, and tied the score at 69 apiece. But on the other end, UTD had an answer. Austin Page, UTD’s 6’10, 230-pound center, caught a pass in the low post after Zach Spitzer drove towards the rim along the baseline. Spitzer’s drive drew defensive attention, giving Page a bit more space to work with when Spitzer flipped him the ball with 28 seconds left. Page scored on a layup, despite contact from UMHB’s Ryan Pondant, pushing the Comets back in front.

Twice, The Cru had a good look to tie it back up in the closing seconds. But both shots—the first from Connor Zamiara and the second from Eli Beard—went in and out, refusing to fall through the net. UTD’s Jordan Balderaz then made the first of his two free throws with 1.4 seconds left, and Josh Goings’ desperation heave at the final buzzer fell short.

It was a game of close misses, several momentum shifts, and was indeed every bit as competitive as the final score suggests. In a way, that is part of what made it difficult. A layup here, a free throw there, and the outlook for The Cru may have been entirely different.

UMHB missed four of its first five layup opportunities in the opening six minutes, some being more open than others, which contributed to UTD’s 34-30 halftime lead. After UTD grabbed the lead in an 8-2 run in the first four minutes, the Comets never trailed again, though UMHB later tied the score on three occasions in the second half.

“A lot of that is just rhythm,” Carroll said when asked about the first half. “We didn’t find good rhythm offensively, we didn’t move the ball very well, it wasn’t crisp. They did a really good job of competing with Eli, and not letting Eli get some clean looks. That opened up some layups for us that we didn’t capitalize on.”

There was another dynamic at play in the matchup as well. UMHB came into Thursday’s contest ranked No. 21 nationally in the D3hoops.com Top 25, just the second Top 25 opponent on UTD’s schedule so far. The only previous instance was a 90-55 loss on Nov. 16 to the Colorado School of Mines, who was ranked No. 8/22 in Division II’s major polls at the time.

With no postseason to play for and no conference title to write as a goal on the whiteboard due to their reclassification to D-II, facing opponents that will contend for league titles and NCAA Tournament bids is the next best opportunity for the Comets. UMHB presented that opportunity, and the familiarity between the two programs—who faced off in last year’s ASC Tournament final—only added to the intensity.

“They’ve got a talented team and some older guys who have been through the wars,” Carroll said of the Comets, who are a Division II independent this season. “They’re in a tough situation because they really don’t have anything to play for. This game may be one of the defining moments of their season, because they don’t have a postseason. They played like this game meant a lot more to them.”

And as Carroll pointed out, UMHB will need to get used to playing with a target on its back. Every game from here on out will be within American Southwest Conference action, where The Cru is currently seen as the league favorite and remains the ASC’s only Top 25 team.

“This is part of the growing process,” Carroll continued. “We have to understand that come Thursday, it’s going to be the biggest game of the year for East Texas. Come Saturday, it’s going to be the biggest game of the year for LeTourneau. We have to mentally prepare for that and do a better job in practice preparing each other for that.”

Thursday’s contest, as important as it was to simply return from the multi-week layoff and put together a solid performance, holds no bearing on UMHB’s Division III record or The Cru’s ranking with the NCAA’s Power Index (used to determine NCAA Tournament at-large selection). But next week, it will become more real. Those games count, and they count for quite a bit, both within the ASC title conversation and the national tournament picture.

ETBU and LeTourneau are familiar conference opponents, and with just eight league games, even one misstep could be costly in the pursuit of the ASC’s regular season crown. ETBU currently sits at 4-13 overall, and LETU is 13-3, having charged back from a 33-point deficit in Thursday night’s 111-102 win over Howard Payne.

“It’s baby steps, right; win the conference championship, win the conference tournament championship, go win an NCAA championship,” Carroll said of the upcoming ASC opener. “That’s something that’s on our goal board every year. Here we are. It’s time to get the No. 1 seed. You have to protect home court. We’ve got to have great performances next week at home, and get started the right way.”