UMHB men's basketball goes toe-to-toe with first-place Hardin-Simmons, Falls in 72-71 loss

BELTON — There were chances to win it in the end, which, for a UMHB team whose struggles have been noticeable in recent weeks, was all anyone could really ask for. Especially considering the opponent on the opposite bench came to Belton with an unblemished 7-0 ASC record in tow.

Free throw shooting and a few unfavorable bounces made the difference in the final minute of a contest decided by the slimmest of margins. 72-71 was the final, with Hardin-Simmons barely brushing past The Cru to finish the regular season 8-0 in conference play.

UMHB went 1-for-4 at the free throw line in the final 1:40 and converted on just one of its final four field goal attempts, culminating in a moment that caused the entire crowd inside the Mayborn Campus Center to fall dead silent.

With 7.1 seconds left, Ryan Pondant made a play to keep The Cru alive, with UMHB trailing 72-68. After Josh Goings missed a jumper and got his own rebound, Eli Beard sent up a 3-point attempt from the right wing that also missed. But Pondant used every bit of his 6’8 frame to leap up and grab the rebound, putting it back in midair, as the deficit was cut to 72-70.

Then came a rushed inbounds pass from HSU’s Silas Davis, which landed near mid-court without any HSU player in the vicinity. Goings raced backwards and secured possession of the turnover, creating a frantic finish that saw Goings dribble hard to his right and make an underhanded pass to Beard, who then drove along the baseline and passed to Pondant. With less than two seconds left, Pondant rose up for a game-tying layup. His shot was heavily guarded and didn’t fall in, but HSU’s Will Bartoszek fouled him on the play.

1.1 seconds remained. UMHB down two. Pondant, a 51.4 percent free-throw shooter, stepped to the line out of a timeout. His first attempt swished through the net, bringing The Cru one point closer. His second drifted slightly to the right, rimming out. Beard put up a desperation 3 from the left wing, but it came after the final buzzer and was missed anyway.

The arena fell silent and HSU breathed a collective sigh of relief, having very narrowly avoided the upset. UMHB head coach Clif Carroll walked straight to Pondant, consoling the standout forward, whose putback had given UMHB an opportunity to tie the game in the first place. It was a gut-wrenching final few seconds, and yet, despite coming up one point short, the Crusaders proved they were capable of going stride-for-stride with the ASC’s unquestioned top squad.

“We played a lot harder today than we had been,” Beard, who scored his 1,000th point as a Crusader and led UMHB with 17 points. “So we can take away our effort and the way we played hard on every possession. We were really locked in.”

Despite being out-rebounded by eight and giving up 17 second-chance points, UMHB carried over the defensive intensity from last Saturday’s 82-57 win at ETBU. After holding ETBU to its fourth-lowest point total of the season, UMHB held HSU to its lowest offensive output within the eight-game conference slate, a far cry from the 98 points the Crusaders allowed in Abilene on Feb. 1.

Amongst the most noteworthy stats, UMHB came up with 17 points off 13 HSU turnovers, including a pair of 3s from Donta Coady and Josh Goings in the first four minutes of the second half.

“We’re definitely playing a lot for each other,” Beard said postgame. “We’re playing as hard as possible. The games are numbered, even if we go all the way. So we’re just enjoying this time with each other and giving it our all.”

UMHB dropped to 3-4 in ASC play with the loss, setting up Saturday’s regular season finale in Belton against Howard Payne. With a win, The Cru would secure the No. 3 seed in next week’s ASC Tournament in Marshall, Texas.

Throughout the entirety of the second half, the lead never widened beyond four points for either side, with both sides trading stops and scores as the clock wound down. With 6:58 left, Maurice Pinnock drove down the middle of the lane and dished a pass to his left at the last second. Pondant received the pass and rose above the HSU defense, slamming a two-handed dunk through the net for a 62-60 lead.

It marked UMHB’s last scoring play that resulted in the lead, as HSU countered with five straight points, including back-to-back jumpers from Austin Brewer and Bartoszek. Beard answered with a jumper of his own, cutting the deficit to one, but it ended up being the closest The Cru came to tying the score until Pondant’s late free throw.

Early on, it was UMHB who opened the game with momentum, as Beard scored each of The Cru’s first seven points. The senior guard connected on a pair of 3s, and drew a foul on his second one from the right wing, making the free throw that followed for a four-point play and a 7-3 lead.

Matthew Alexander played a similar role for HSU in the early goings, accounting for each of the Cowboys’ first nine points before Brewer hit a jumper and tied the score at 11 apiece with 15:01 left in the half. UMHB answered Brewer’s score with an 8-1 run, stretching the lead to 19-12 on a 3 from freshman Zach May. HSU slowly worked its way back into contention, however, taking the lead with 6:44 until halftime on Bartoszek’s first points of the night.

The senior forward ended up with 12 points, while both Alexander and Davis led HSU’s scoring attack with 18 apiece.

A pair of free throws from Bartoszek—one of only two trips to the charity stripe for him in the contest—with 19 seconds left in the first half put HSU up, 33-31, at the break. UMHB and HSU shot an identical 10-of-36 from the field in the opening 20 minutes, with Davis’ two free throws being the only real separator. HSU was 8-of-9 from the line in the half, while UMHB went 6-of-7.

The Cru returns to the Mayborn Campus Center at 3 p.m. CT in Saturday’s regular season finale against a Howard Payne team that pushes the pace on every possession. While the Yellow Jackets were held to 76 points in Thursday’s 109-76 loss at UT-Dallas, HPU ranks fourth in Division III in scoring offense, averaging 99.7 points per game. It will also mark Senior Day for a strong group of seniors, which includes Beard, who is averaging 21.7 points per game in his second season in Belton.

“We gotta get this one,” Beard said matter-of-factly when asked about putting Thursday’s difficult loss in the rearview mirror and looking ahead to Saturday. “It’s as simple as that. We have to do whatever it takes to get this one so we can go into the [ASC] Tournament with some confidence.”