Defensive effort paves the way to UMHB women's basketball's 75-60 win over Hardin-Simmons

Photo by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru

BELTON — There was a point on Thursday night where UMHB simply held the lead against Hardin-Simmons. Then came a point when The Cru completely took over.

It seemed to come late in the third quarter, in the form of a memorable 24-second stretch that said everything an observer needed to know about the effort level of the Crusaders on this particular night inside the Mayborn Campus Center.

After Remi Adeleke stretched the lead to 15 on her third score of the game, UMHB’s Jaycie Brisco found herself dribbling on the right wing just seconds after Amillion Fowler pulled down a defensive rebound on the other end. Brisco, with almost no hesitation, drove the ball at the rim, scoring on a layup through contact that brought the UMHB bench to its feet.

And that was just the beginning.

Having been fouled by HSU’s Dylan Koele on the play, Brisco made the ensuing free throw for an old-fashioned three-point play. She then intercepted MaeSyn Gay’s inbounds pass at the baseline, flipping the ball back to Josie Bruder, who was set up perfectly for a short-range floater in the paint.

HSU successfully inbounded the ball after Bruder’s jumper, but getting across halfcourt proved to be another story. Cornered near the right sideline by UMHB’s Katelen Brooks and Amillion Fowler, Jayda Mitchell attempted to throw a pass into the frontcourt, only for Brooks to leap up and deflect it for the second time in a three-second span.

Brooks snatched the ball out of the air and fired a pass to Fowler, who saw the play unfolding and smartly moved towards the UMHB basket. Despite Mitchell’s best efforts to get back into a defensive position, Fowler drove right past her, finishing with a right-handed layup that pushed the lead to 22, 53-31. It was the largest deficit the Cowgirls had faced at any point in ASC play this season.

That stretch was a microcosm of The Cru’s overall success in the contest, as UMHB cruised to a double-digit win over the Cowgirls for the first time since Dec. 11, 2021. The 75-60 victory marked a season sweep over HSU for Katie Novak-Lenoir’s squad, who are now 5-2 in ASC play and 16-8 overall heading into Saturday’s regular season finale against Howard Payne.

“I feel like it was just the defense,” Novak-Lenoir said postgame, when asked about the 27-13 third-quarter run. “That’s what’s winning us games. It’s the way we defend. And our offense comes from our defense.”

That element showed up time and time again, whether it was Brisco intercepting an inbounds pass, or Brooks forcing a steal as the result of full-court pressure defense. HSU turned the ball over 16 times in the first half, leading to 17 points for The Cru, and that continued into the final two quarters. The Cowgirls finished with a season-high 24 turnovers, many of them forced solely by UMHB’s consistent defense. HSU’s shooting percentage of 38.9% was also the Cowgirls’ lowest in their last four games.

The offense didn’t come easily for The Cru at first, either. UMHB shot just 28.1% from the field over the first two quarters, and Josie Bruder’s 3-pointer at the end of a critical 6-0 run early in the second was their only made shot from beyond the arc in eight first-half attempts. But the Crusaders established their 31-23 halftime lead by getting to the free throw line, making six trips to the charity stripe in the 10 minutes leading into halftime. UMHB went 8-of-13 in that stretch, with Adyson James accounting for four of those makes, as The Cru gained separation.

But in the third quarter, things started to click more consistently. High-quality shots, and more shots from short-range, played into UMHB’s best 10-minute stretch of the evening. The Cru went 11-of-18 from the field, 3-of-6 from 3-point range, and added a pair of made free throws along the way. 16 of their 27 points in the quarter were scored in the paint, and they came up with six points off four offensive rebounds, beating HSU in nearly every statistical category.

“I thought we were taking better shots,” Novak-Lenoir said, reflecting on the improvement offensively as the game wore on. “When we first started the game, I thought we were taking a lot of crazy shots, maybe with a little bit of nerves coming into this game. It was a lot of off-balance and contested shots. We got back to, ‘We need to get paint touches and get in a flow.’

“That’s what we’ve been working on all week. Get the paint touches, get the ball moving, less dribbles is more. That was our motto this week: Less is more. And I think we did better capitalizing on the [offensive] boards than we’ve done in a while.”

*The defensive effort showed up in a big way, as UMHB swept its season series with HSU for the first time since the 2021-22 season (Photo by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru)*

Part of that stemmed from balanced contributions, which kept HSU on its toes. Fowler had 11 points in the second half, 18 total in the contest. Bruder put up 15 points, marking her second 15-point performance against HSU this season. Brisco came through with 14 points, in addition to her team-high 11 rebounds, six made free throws (6-of-9 at the line), and five assists. Fowler scored 18 of UMHB’s 32 bench points—another strong point in comparison to HSU, who got just nine points off the bench—but Adeleke and Brooks contributed significantly as well, with eight and six points, respectively. Five Crusaders finished with eight points or more.

“It doesn’t put so much pressure on one person and for a lot of it, I think it’s just them having confidence in themselves,” Novak-Lenoir noted. “When you share the ball, you’re going to get it back. We don’t ever have the mentality of, ‘I need to get mine.’

“I honestly feel like this team is really good with being selfless, but it doesn’t mean the ball doesn’t get stuck. So when the ball moves more, anybody can knock down a shot or get to the rim. We did a better job knocking down field goals today because they were smarter shots.”

There was an added pressure on the contest, and not just because of Hardin-Simmons’ pedigree and the familiarity between the programs, who were playing for the fifth time in the last two seasons.

Heading into Thursday night’s anticipated duel between UMHB and Hardin-Simmons, one thing was already set in stone: It would not be the last time the two ASC power programs met this season. Due to the state of the conference standings in the final week of the regular season, UMHB and Hardin-Simmons were already booked to play in an semifinal at next week’s ASC Tournament in Marshall, Texas. Both programs went in knowing it was a preview of the win-or-go-home duel to come, a game that will ultimately decide the fate of one team’s season.

But even with that considered, Novak-Lenoir said the mentality in the UMHB locker room, both throughout the week and Thursday night, was centered far more on themselves than any opponent or matchup to come.

“I think it’s more about us just playing consistent,” Novak-Lenoir told True To The Cru. “We’re trying to get to the point where we’re playing consistent, and we’re improving on things on a day-by-day basis. That’s really what we’re looking for.”

UMHB hosts Howard Payne in its regular season finale on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Belton. It will be Senior Day for The Cru, with Brisco, Adeleke, and Makayla Ward listed as the program’s three seniors. HPU remains winless in ASC play (0-7) and is 4-20 overall, having dropped its last 12 contests.