Paint points, Rebounding, carry Hardin-Simmons in 98-73 win over UMHB men's basketball

ABILENE, Texas — Over the course of a college basketball season, teachable moments come about in a variety of scenarios, some more favorable on the scoreboard than others. And inside the Mabee Complex on Saturday afternoon, UMHB found itself faced with one of those moments—a “wake up call” perhaps—in an outcome that left The Cru on the wrong end of a 25-point game.

UMHB found itself in stride with first-place Hardin-Simmons for the game’s first five minutes, trailing by a manageable 15-11 margin with 15:15 left in the opening half. Then HSU hit a flurry of 3s. The Cru, in response, deviated from its game plan.

The result? 42 points in the paint and 13 3-pointers for the host Cowboys, who closed the first half on a 23-10 run and outscored UMHB in both halves of a 98-73 victory. It tied the season-opening loss to Trine for the most points allowed by The Cru in a game this season, and HSU shot for the second-highest percentage by a UMHB opponent thus far (52.8%).

“That’s a team that averages 7 made 3s a game,” UMHB head coach Clif Carroll said postgame. “They score a lot of paint points. Their two leading scorers are paint guys. So we really wanted to get a foot in the paint, protect the paint.

“They came out and hit four contested 3s. Instead of keeping faith in what we’re doing and staying in the paint, we’re now seeing ghosts and jumping around. Then they hit us in the paint. Until they started getting the paint points, we were right there in the game.”

The spurt Carroll referenced came primarily in a two-minute span between the 13-minute and 11-minute marks of the first half. Cooper Peterson connected on three straight shots from beyond the arc, pushing HSU’s lead to 29-18 with his third. A transfer from NAIA Webber International, Peterson came in averaging 6.2 points per game, but doubled that on Saturday, scoring 12 points in 14 minutes.

The Cru briefly cut the HSU lead back to eight on a free throw from leading scorer Eli Beard, but as Carroll noted, the Cowboys continually beat UMHB from short-range over the last 10 minutes of the half.

After Peterson’s third 3, HSU’s next five field goals came in the paint, including a dunk from Chris Brewer that widened the margin to 14. That sparked a 10-0 run from the Cowboys, highlighted by 3s from Will Bartoszek and Austin Brewer, as HSU blew the game wide-open with 3:46 left in the first half, leading 47-25.

“It’s a learning experience,” Carroll said. “Sometimes you pick a fight with a dude and he comes out and hits you. Sometimes you just lose fights. Hardin-Simmons was ready to go, and my hat’s off to them. But we have to do a better job of staying true [to our plan]. I feel like if we hadn’t let them get the paint stuff and rebound, we would’ve been right there with them.”

That continued into the second half as well, with HSU’s lead dipping below 20 on just three occasions over the final 20 minutes. The Cowboys stretched the advantage to as many as 28 on Brewer’s second 3 of the afternoon with 3:49 to go, and while they cooled off from their 63.6% first-half shooting performance, they still managed five more field goals than The Cru in the second half.

Of note, UMHB played without junior wing Zachary Engels for the third-straight game, leading to an even more inexperienced rotation on the floor. Having beaten an offensive-oriented Howard Payne squad, 98-93, in an up-tempo game just two days prior, the turnaround proved difficult. The second game of a conference weekend is never easy, and even more so when the first game wears down a team’s legs in the way Thursday did, Factor in the dynamic of multiple players dealing with illness over the last two weeks, and it adds context to the 25-point loss.

“It’s not an excuse, but it’s a factor,” Carroll said of the challenges with multiple players out or fatigued by illness in recent weeks. “The last two weeks we’ve had guys sick and in and out of practice, and we’re still not completely healthy.

“It’s tough. You play a game like we had Thursday night, and then you come over here and play in front of this great crowd that they had. It’s draining. It takes a lot of toughness, and we just didn’t have enough of it today.”

That particularly showed up in the rebounding category, where HSU finished +12 on the boards, with 46 rebounds to UMHB’s 34. 13 of HSU’s 46 came on the offensive end, leading to 13 second-chance points. It marked only the third time this season that The Cru were out-rebounded by double-digits, with the last instance coming in the Dec. 30 win over Illinois Wesleyan in Belton.

HSU’s aggressiveness on the boards, led by Bartoszek (11 rebounds) and Bryant (9 rebounds), seemed to wear down UMHB as the contest progressed. The Cru came in averaging 42.0 rebounds per game over their last three, yet finished eight below that, and their eight offensive rebounds were UMHB’s fewest in an ASC game this season.

The Crusaders’ next opportunity for a bounce-back comes on Thursday in Belton, as UMHB aims to avenge its 72-69 loss at UT-Dallas on Jan. 16. The Comets are 13-8, with wins over ETBU and Hardin-Simmons on their resume.

But rather than focusing on the opponent, the emphasis will be internal, looking to get back to the level they were at in the 78-77 win over No. 9 Illinois Wesleyan over a month ago. In the midst of a 2-2 start to conference play, Carroll noted that while they’ve picked up wins in recent wins, it hasn’t been to the standard expected, nor to the standard that will take this team where it wants to go postseason-wise.

“Really since the UTD game last time, we haven’t played great basketball,” Carroll said. “I think we have a lot of false confidence. Hopefully getting smacked the way we did will bring some guys down to earth and we can re-evaluate where we are as players, as a team, and go on a stretch run. There’s some things we need to do to be better, from the coaching staff all the way down to the players and support staff. We have to change some things that we’re doing. We’ve been winning some games, but not in the way we should be or a way that’s sustainable or championship-level.

“We’ve played that type of basketball this year. We have played good enough to win championships at points this year. We’re just not doing it right now. We need to get everybody back on the same page and refocused.”