Photo by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru/LukeZayasMedia
BELTON — The first seven minutes played out at a frenetic pace, Howard Payne’s up-tempo, run-and-gun, fourth-in-the-nation offense clashing with Mary Hardin-Baylor’s speed and athleticism.
Nobody in the stands at the Mayborn Campus Center expected much different. In this regular season finale, with the No. 3 seed and a first-round bye in next week’s American Southwest Conference Tournament on the line, both teams needed a win badly. The first meeting in Brownwood on Jan. 30 was tight all the way, with UMHB eventually pulling out a 98-93 victory. The Yellow Jackets clearly hadn’t forgotten.
HPU sputtered on its first handful of possessions before a flurry of three 3-pointers abruptly changed the tide. In the blink of an eye, the Yellow Jackets went from trailing 5-2 to leading 11-5. UMHB cut the deficit to two, but HPU just answered with three more swishes from beyond the arc.
22-14 was the score when UMHB’s Josh Goings drove along the baseline and into the paint. Then the arena fell silent.
The junior guard, one of The Cru’s unquestioned leaders and a Central Texas native, had leapt towards the rim in a layup attempt. But he came down hard and landed awkwardly on his right leg, immediately crumpling in obvious pain. The gravity of the situation was immediately evident; from the reactions of players on both teams around the play, the rapid response of the medical personnel who rushed to his side, and the agony on Goings’ face as he lay unmoving on the hardwood.
Clif Carroll, UMHB fifth-year head coach, knelt down beside his standout guard, comforting him for several minutes as an ambulance was called, and an air cast was placed around Goings’ right lower leg. He was soon moved onto a stretcher as players from both teams crowded around in support. Goings gave a quick acknowledgement to the crowd as they stood in ovation, supporters wearing both purple and navy blue alike.
For several minutes, the scoreboard was the last thing on the minds of the players on the floor, both sides visibly shaken by the entire event. One second Goings was flying through the air, exhibiting the scoring ability that had already shown up once with a jumper three minutes prior. And then the next, he was laying on the court with a serious injury, leaving the floor on a stretcher. It was gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, and both teams stood in huddles in front of their respective benches, seemingly unsure how to just keep playing.
“What do you tell them?” a clearly emotional Clif Carroll said postgame. “We were all bawling on the sidelines. We prayed. And then we prayed again. You just kind of become a zombie. And for four or five minutes there, it looked like it.”
Howard Payne stretched its lead to 34-17 by the 8:22 mark, with The Cru going 1-of-5 from the field in that span, and the typically sure-handed Eli Beard turning it over twice. Nobody would have faulted The Cru if the traumatic injury to Goings was the breaking point, as it was shaping up to be. Goings was UMHB’s leader in assists, leader in steals, ranked No. 2 in scoring, and an all-around high-character contributor that his teammates rallied around.
But they took a different path instead. They chose to battle.
“Josh went down and in my mind, I was saying, ‘We can’t lose this for him,’” Ryan Pondant, who grabbed a career-high 22 rebounds, said afterwards. “In my mind, I was playing for Josh.”
Possession after possession, The Cru climbed the mountain of the 17-point deficit. They cut it to nine on three occasions down the stretch of the first half, trailing 48-39 at the intermission. And in the second half, the will to win with Goings in mind proved even more evident.
“You have a guy that you’ve been fighting with all year, especially a guy that means as much as Josh does to us,” Carroll said. “It’s really hard as a coach. We’ve got to deal with a lot of things, but that right there…there’s no textbook for it. There’s no answer of like, what do you do? But they pulled it together. They dug out of a huge hole and came all the way back and had a chance to win.
“I think things are setting up for the positive. I just don’t know how much emotional energy we have. Hopefully we can recharge here the next couple days and get back to it.”
With 2:05 left, HPU’s Hudson Johnson drained a back-breaking 3-pointer, pushing the Yellow Jacket advantage to 86-73. After cutting the deficit to four exactly two minutes prior on a Maurice Pinnock free throw, HPU’s 3-point shooting had again caught fire.
Several teams would have folded down 17 midway through the first half. A good number would have lost hope when it seemed every one of their made shots was answered by two more from the opponent. And down 13 with 2:05 left, late in the season and two days after an emotionally-taxing 72-71 loss to Hardin-Simmons, quite a few teams may have been content to play out the final 125 seconds and get it all over with. But not this version of The Cru. Not in their final home game of the year. Not with Goings at the forefront of their minds.
“When Josh went down, we didn’t know what to do,” Pondant said later. “He’s one of the glue pieces of this team. But [Trey] Seigle, one of our leaders, came over and rallied us up, and said, ‘We got to do this for him.’ That’s what gave us our motivation.”
They began chipping away, but trailed by 11 with 1:39 to go. After breaking UMHB’s full court press, HPU’s Trey Jackson was set up with an open layup on the other end to stretch the lead back to 13, but missed, and Beard leapt up and grabbed the rebound. Understanding how precious the remaining time was to a comeback bid, the senior guard wasted no time racing into the frontcourt. He took a quick look back to make sure there wasn’t an HPU defender on his heels, and put up a long 3 that hit nothing but net.
The crowd of over 800 roared back to life as The Cru pulled within eight, and HPU’s Riley Fornerette threw a long pass out of bounds on the Yellow Jackets’ ensuing possession. Eight seconds later, Maurice Pinnock lofted a 3 from the left wing, knocking it down as the momentum shifted entirely in the direction of the hosts. The big plays came defensively, too, as Jerry Day Jr., in his final game in Belton, forced a turnover on HPU’s next possession. The two-sport athlete knocked Armonie Ramey’s dribble away and dove on the loose ball without hesitation, calling a timeout as he secured possession.
Down five with 53.5 seconds to play, Pinnock again stepped up, driving through the HPU defense for a layup through contact. The crowd again erupted as Pinnock went to the line for a chance at a three-point play, having been fouled by Fornerette. He made the free throw, and all of a sudden, UMHB had trimmed a 13-point deficit to two in 1:45.
A tip-in from Zach May after Johnson made a pair of free throws for HPU again put UMHB down two, with the ball coming out of a timeout. Just under four seconds remained. Seigle, who came into the contest averaging just 3.5 minutes per game but had already played 6, caught the baseline inbounds pass from May and was fouled on his game-tying layup attempt. He went to the charity stripe, having attempted just two free throws all year, both in the loss to Hardin-Simmons on Feb. 1. But in his short stint on the floor, the product of Burke, Virginia had brought a spark, hitting a 3-pointer on his first offensive possession with 15:47 left. His first attempt missed. The second fell through, bringing The Cru back within one.
On the other end, Johnson made 1-of-2 at the line, missing the second as the 2.9 seconds left quickly expired. Beard tossed up a desperation heave from well beyond half court, but it was off the mark, time having run out on the comeback bid. HPU left Belton with a 90-88 victory, with UMHB’s 0-2 week decided by a combined three points. Yet the reaction in the immediate aftermath wasn’t one of disappointment as much as it was a sense of pride. In a grueling week, forced to turnaround quickly after the HSU loss and contend with the emotions of Goings’ injury, The Cru never faltered and refused to quit. They gave themselves a chance in the end, something that hadn’t seemed likely even two minutes prior.
“The week that these guys have had has been emotionally-draining, but the togetherness has been unbelievable,” Carroll said. “We’ve had two tough teams play well against us. The effort has been there. Things just haven’t fallen our way. I’m just really proud of these guys and what they’re doing for us, for this university, and me personally.”
Even in the loss, UMHB secured the No. 3 seed in next week’s ASC Tournament, having kept the margin of defeat within five after beating HPU previously in Brownwood. The Cru gets a rematch with LeTourneau, who rides a three-game win streak into the postseason, in Friday’s 12 p.m. semifinal. They’re ready to turn the page in Marshall.
“We need some rest,” Carroll said simply. “You want to win, but above everything, we needed some rest. So we get the bye and now have a few days to mentally reset and deal with Josh’s loss.
“I’m praying for my team every second of every day, and I’m so grateful for them and what they’re doing. This is incredible. I know we’re coming off two losses and it’s kind of a loser’s mentality of moral victories, but nobody knows what these guys have been through this week.”
Without question, the second half of the regular season proved to be a trying stretch for Carroll’s squad. They reached the highest of highs just after Christmas, taking down Illinois Wesleyan, the No. 9 team in the land, on Dec. 30. Then they ventured in a valley, struggling through various stretches of adversity in ASC play. They’ve dropped four of their last five in conference action, and yet it’s what the record isn’t showing that remains worthy of mention. Through the challenges, and especially in this last week, starting with the 82-57 win at ETBU, UMHB’s resilience has shown through.
“It’s just the resolve this team has,” Carroll said, when asked about the mentality Pondant shared of fighting back for Goings. “We’ve dealt with injury, loss, and a lot of things over the last couple weeks. And every time, they choose to fight. They choose to play for each other. They choose to have joy.
“If you come watch our practice, you’d never know that we’re a struggling basketball team. The guys play with joy. They love each other. They love me, and I love them. Hopefully we can win a couple games here next week in the playoff.”
Pondant, who willed The Cru back in contention with rebound after rebound, agreed. Yet another senior playing his final game in Belton, the 6’8 forward was on the floor for all but four minutes of the second half. His 22 rebounds were the second-most in a single game in program history, complemented by a season-high 16 points and 3 blocks.
His effort level was a prime example of the will to win seen across the board, particularly from the seniors. Pinnock had 24 points and went 5-of-5 at the free throw line. Beard connected on four 3s, scoring 22 points. Day dished out two assists and tallied two steals in 31 minutes on the floor.
“We’re going to regroup,” Pondant said postgame . “We have a couple days to prepare and get ready. And we’ll be back in East Texas, ready to go.”
