LeTourneau hits 20 3s as UMHB men's basketball suffers third-straight loss

LONGVIEW, Texas — It wasn’t always this way. There was a point, not all that long ago, when it seemed opponents were lucky to get even a handful of 3-point shots to fall in successive order against UMHB’s perimeter defense. With the defensive guard play The Cru took pride in, opposing offenses more often than not found themselves looking for alternative scoring options that didn’t involve the 3-point line.

But now in mid-February, that level of defense has seemingly vanished. The 3 is now UMHB’s nemesis, and its effects are evident in the win-loss column.

LeTourneau kept watching them fall from long-range on Thursday night, shot after shot put up from that darkened wood floor inside Solheim Arena, pulling the Yellowjackets further and further away. So many swished through the net that it set a new LETU record for 3s in a game, with the Yellowjackets converting on 20-of-40 3-point shots, the most 3s allowed by UMHB in head coach Clif Carroll’s five seasons as head coach.

It was 55-35 in favor of LETU at the half. And it never really got better from there in a 102-81 defeat against a team The Cru beat 94-71 in Belton just three weeks prior.

As the sand in the hourglass continues to sift away—just three games remain in the regular season—Carroll is left searching for answers.

“Over half the season, we were holding opponents to 27% from 3, which is like Top 20 in the country,” Carroll began. “And we haven’t really changed anything. Now, we’re having teams double their average output from 3 against us. It’s something we need to figure out. We can’t continue to give up 100 points a game and expect to do anything.

“I’ve got to get in the film room, study, and figure it out. I don’t know if it’s personnel, strategy, but something’s got to give. The first time we played East Texas Baptist at home, they shot it above their average. Howard Payne shot it above their average. Hardin-Simmons doubled their average. Why are teams hitting so many 3s against us? It’s glaring. Everybody in the stands knows it. We’ve got to figure that out….because it’s not like it’s been that way all season.”

Through the Crusaders’ first 17 games, they surrendered 12 or more 3s on three occasions—at Trine, at Whitman, and in a neutral court loss to Cal Lutheran. Over their last four? Every opponent has converted at least 12 3s, with Thursday night being the latest, and most visible, sign that something is just not right.

They’ve dropped three straight for the first time all season, two of those by more than 20 points. They’re 2-3 in the ASC. And they don’t bear a whole lot of resemblence to the team that stepped on the court with then-No. 9 Illinois Wesleyan in late December and handed those midwesterners their first loss of the season in a 78-77 thriller. Since the 17-day break that came after that monumental win—a scheduling issue forced by the ASC’s miniscule conference slate and out of the hands of UMHB’s coaching staff—they haven’t found that rhythm again.

“This isn’t just about this game,” Carroll said. “This has been a weeks-long thing. Really, it’s been since we had to take the two weeks off after beating Illinois Wesleyan. We haven’t been the same team. Everything just came to a head tonight. LeTourneau was out of their minds shooting the ball. My hat’s off to them. They played a great game. So it’s hard for me to point to one thing. This has been happening for over a month now.”

Frustrations boiled over as LETU pulled away. It happened as early as the 10:00 mark of the first half, when the Yellowjackets—who made 13 3s in the first 20 minutes—-took their nine-point lead and turned it into an advantage of 21, almost without hesitation. UMHB struggled to find stops on the defensive end, compounded by a forgettable scoring drought that spanned over four minutes and saw The Cru’s next eight shots end up off the mark.

There was simply no recovery once it happened. The Cru started scoring, but LETU didn’t slow down, nor meet much resistance from UMHB’s defense. The LETU lead never dipped below 15 in the second half, as the Yellowjackets cooled off somewhat, but still shot 44.1% from the field and 7-of-15 from beyond the arc.

Then came the moment with 12:17 left, when Carroll, displeased with the officiating, picked up back-to-back technical fouls. The heated exchange between him and the officials near center court landed Carroll with an ejection, which did little to quiet the LETU fans, whose cheers as Carroll was escorted off only added to a night where it felt little went right for the visitors from Belton.

“I know of all nights, I shouldn’t be saying anything, but we need to find a way to get some positivity back to our program and find a way to get going forward,” Carroll added. “I feel like we’ve been in neutral or reverse for so long. We’ve got to get going forward.”

They don’t have to wait long for that opportunity. ETBU poses a massive challenge on Saturday, as the team that went into the Mayborn Campus Center and knocked off The Cru in the final seconds of its ASC opener on Jan. 23. The Cru hasn’t won in Marshall since the 2020-21 season, so there’s that historical component to consider as well.

“It’s come to a point where we’ve got to get things figured out or we’ve got to make a big change,” Carroll noted. “We’ve got a tough game Saturday. Tough place to play. We’ve struggled there the last couple years, and lost to them already at home. And then obviously two really hot teams coming in next week. If we’re going to get this thing right by the tournament, we’ve got to start getting it right.”

Carroll remembers the 2008 South Plains Junior College national title run he was a part of, and reaching a similar point after a couple difficult losses late in the year. That team turned it around with the little time they had left, winning a national title at the end.

UMHB will have a similar opportunity in the ASC Tournament in two weeks, where the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament is still up for grabs. By no means was Thursday’s loss a point of finality for this struggling team. But Carroll hopes the days that follow the defeat might be ones that change his squad’s current trajectory.

“Back in my JUCO days, when I was an assistant coach, we had a similar stretch where we really struggled and limped to the end of the season,” Carroll recalled Thursday night. “All of a sudden, we caught fire in tournament time and went and won a national championship. There’s evidence we can be very good. We just have to get back on track and get everybody rolling the same direction.”