Photo: Amillion Fowler led UMHB in scoring in a back-and-forth duel with Concordia (Photo by Luke Zayas)
BELTON — For the first three quarters on Saturday afternoon, UMHB’s defense held Concordia to a shooting percentage below 30 percent. The Tornados struggled to find offensive rhythm, and The Cru led 40-37 entering the final 10 minutes.
But Concordia flipped a switch down the stretch, converting on eight of its final 12 shots, and while UMHB provided plenty of quick responses in a game featuring 11 lead changes, the Tornados left the Mayborn Campus Center with their season’s first win, 58-56.
Concordia’s Sam Ising went 1-of-2 at the free throw line with 30 seconds left, breaking a 56-56 tie. The Tornados then prevented a counter from The Cru, forcing a pair of missed shots on the ensuing possession, as Madison Martinez grabbed Amillion Fowler’s missed layup with 11.3 seconds left. Martinez’s key defensive rebound sent Aja Holmes to the free throw line with 7.3 seconds left, extending Concordia’s lead to two.
While UMHB had the ball in the frontcourt with 6.9 seconds left, the Crusaders failed to put up a shot on the game’s final possession, clinching Concordia’s narrow road win.
Fowler came off the bench and tied her previous season-high with 17 points, leading The Cru’s scoring effort. The senior went 5-of-6 from 3-point range and made her first four shots from beyond the arc, in addition to pulling down a team-best nine rebounds.
Taysie Trejo’s 14 points led Concordia, along with 13 from Zoiey Jumawan. Ising also had 13 rebounds in the effort, as the senior tallied her first double-digit rebound performance of the season.
UMHB opened its fourth home game of the season with a pair of 3s from Amari Welch and Natalia Galvan, taking an early lead that stood for the entirety of the opening quarter. Despite a scoring drought of nearly four minutes until Fowler connected on her first 3 of the afternoon, The Cru remained in control, in large part thanks to a defensive effort that allowed just three offensive rebounds and a 4-of-15 shooting mark from Concordia.
The script flipped in the second quarter, however, beginning the back-and-forth pattern that persisted throughout the contest between the two former ASC foes. Concordia outscored UMHB, 13-6, in the 10 minutes leading into halftime, holding The Cru at bay after a pair of scores early in the quarter. Josie Bruder’s jumper with 2:57 left in the period was UMHB’s lone point-producing possession in the final 6:40, with Concordia putting together a 9-2 spurt for a 23-20 halftime advantage.
There were no extensive scoring runs in the third quarter. Instead, both sides traded scores down the stretch, leading to seven lead changes in the last 6:15 of the quarter. The 6:15 mark saw Fowler connect on another 3, this time putting UMHB in front, 31-30, after tying the score four different times prior. The final lead change of the quarter came with just 19 seconds left, as Galvan knocked down a 3 on an assist from Welch, breaking a tie to give the hosts a three-point lead heading into the crucial last 10 minutes.
But that final quarter was when Concordia stepped up, a trend that had already shown itself in the Tornados’ first two games when they outscored Whitman and Linfield in the fourth. On this day, the visitors from Austin put up 21 fourth-quarter points, taking back the lead with 4:06 left on a Martinez 3-pointer.
Fowler quickly answered on the other end with a 3 of her own—her fifth of the contest—but Jumawan countered 23 seconds later with a jumper. That quick exchange proved to be the final lead change of the contest, as Jumawan added a 3 with 2:14 left, widening the gap to four. It was Concordia’s largest lead of the game, and enough to keep the Tornados in front, even as UMHB did all it could to regain the lead. Karlee Cronk hit a jumper with 43 seconds remaining for The Cru, tying the score as the game hung in the balance. But Concordia soon retook the lead at the free throw line, and held on for the win.
Saturday’s non-conference tilt was the front end of a two-game home weekend for The Cru, who will host defending SCAC champion Texas Lutheran in Belton on Sunday. The 3 p.m. contest provides a bounce-back opportunity for UMHB, as TLU comes to the Mayborn Center with a 4-1 record and receiving votes in the most recent D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll. TLU is 2-0 against the ASC this season, with wins over Hardin-Simmons and Howard Payne.
