File photo by Luke Zayas/Backwards Hat Media
SHREVEPORT, Louisiana — The opportunity presented by Friday night’s non-conference clash inside Centenary’s Gold Dome was not lost on the UMHB men’s basketball team. Quite the opposite. In fact, it was a talking point for the Crusaders as they hit the road five days after handing Concordia (TX) its first defeat in a 96-82 win.
Their first three-game win streak of the season? It was on the table. A confidence-building road win to give “validation” to the road victory at Concordia? Beating Centenary would accomplish that too. And with a 10-day break from game action waiting on the other side, UMHB’s seventh road game presented a chance for The Cru to go into Christmas with momentum, positioned well heading into the Dec. 29-30 D3hoops.com Classic in Las Vegas.
“The word I used in the pregame was ‘validate’,” UMHB head coach Sam Patterson said. “We wanted to validate that win against Concordia. We had a chance to validate the win at Whitworth, but weren’t able to do that at Trinity. Anytime you can validate a big road win with another win right after, it gives you a ton of confidence.”
Facing Centenary for the second time this season, pulling away from the Gents proved difficult. The Cru led by just eight with 4:46 to go in what had been a fairly back-and-forth second half.
But UMHB, paced by veteran guard Elijah Lawrence, kicked things into high gear down the stretch, going on a 13-2 run. It sealed a 91-75 win for The Cru, who are now 7-4 with victories in four of their last five games away from Belton. They got their validating result, and did so thanks to relentless effort in a contest where very little came easily.
“All I mean by validate is to prove that you’re for real,” Patterson added. “Prove that whatever happened in the past was real and not a fluke. The guys really bought into that today. We’ve had some great road wins, and anytime you can win four true road games before Christmas, that’s a big deal. You always feel more comfortable at home, but if you can have some confidence on the road, that’s going to be big.”
Friday marked the halfway point in a four-game road stretch for Patterson’s squad, who has won seven of its last nine. The Cru out-rebounded Centenary by 30, 61-31, and reached the 90-point mark for the sixth time, driven by a consistent level of energy that isn’t quantified in the box score but certainly shaped UMHB’s outcome.
“I thought rebounding was the difference, and just our energy and effort for all 40 minutes,” Patterson noted. “If we can play with that kind of intensity for that long, there’s not a lot of teams that can match that. That was great to see, especially with this game coming right before Christmas against a team that is way better than their record shows.”
Centenary came in at 1-7, yet both anecdotally and statistically had proven its capability through the opening eight games. The Gents opened on a 13-0 run in UMHB’s eventual 83-62 win in Belton on Nov. 25, and of their seven losses, four had come by six points or fewer.
“I told them before the game, ‘Centenary is not your typical 1-7 team,’” Patterson noted afterwards. “They could’ve easily been 5-3, instead of 1-7. It was important to get [our guys] to understand that. They were really locked in, understood the game plan, and executed it well.”
Centenary made several pushes over the final 10 minutes as the Gents pursued the upset, cutting UMHB’s lead down to as little as seven, 71-64, with 7:15 left. The hosts twice pulled within eight in the minutes that followed before The Cru put forth a statement finish.
Lawrence, who led UMHB with 22 points, drew a foul on a made jumper at the 4:35 mark, and converted on the free throw for an old-fashioned three-point play that stretched the advantage to 11. Then came a transition 3 from Josh Pearre, and Grant Jessen’s fast-break layup 23 seconds later. Lawrence added a pair of free throws on UMHB’s next trip to the offensive end, and in the span of 1:22, The Cru’s lead ballooned from eight to 18. It soon became 19, 89-70, when Lawrence countered Beverly’s jumper with a 3 of his own.
“Elijah played great in the second half,” Patterson said of the Houston native, who set new season-highs in points (22), rebounds (9), and assists (5). “He got good looks in the first half, he was just long on a lot of his attempts. Once he made his first one to open the second half, I felt like that was a weight lifted off his shoulders a little bit.”
Lawrence had 10 of his 22 points in the last five minutes, but even more than his scoring, Patterson was impressed by the senior point guard’s assist-to-turnover ratio—a perfect five-to-zero. He dished out a team-high in assists while playing turnover-free basketball for the third time this season.
“He was good in that [late game] run,” Patterson added. “The best thing I liked about his stat line was five assists, zero turnovers. That’s really important.”
Lawrence headlined the game-sealing run, but UMHB got positive production up and down the roster in yet another well-balanced effort. Hudson Johnson added 21 points, shooting 4-of-9 from beyond the arc in his sixth 20-point performance of the season. Jessen played 21 minutes off the bench and notched a double-double, scoring 12 points along with a team-high 10 rebounds. In addition to his 3 midway through the 13-2 run, Pearre grabbed eight rebounds in 14 minutes on the floor.
UMHB had 24 bench points to Centenary’s 14, and the depth of The Cru’s rotation proved valuable once again, especially in a second half that saw the visitors from Belton outscore the Gents, 48-40.
“We got contributions from everybody,” Patterson noted postgame. “Josh Pearre goes in and he’s a +16 in his minutes. He answered the call. Zach May gave us good production when he came in the game. I like our team because it’s somebody different every night, and that makes it really difficult to scout [us] when you have that kind of depth and selflessness. You obviously have your leaders in Hudson and Zach Engels, but I think our guys complement them really well in a variety of ways.”
Donta Coady was another one of those contributors, and did so in the starting lineup for the third-straight game. After coming off the bench in several noteworthy performances to start the season, the Arlington native has seen his role in the rotation shift slightly over the past week, continuing to stand out as one of UMHB’s top defenders.
“Since we’ve moved him into the starting lineup, it’s made us a better defensive team from the jump,” Patterson said. “I don’t want to take away anything from Zach May; I think it just highlights what Donta does really well. To be able to have a guy with a defensive mentality from the jump, it takes some of the pressure off Hudson, because now you can put Donta on the other team’s best player. That lets Elijah and Hudson then focus on getting the offensive side of the ball going.
“Donta is a quiet stat line most of the time, but he’s really efficient, he’s shooting it really well, and what he provides defensively is something that’s important for us.”
That dynamic showed up early on Friday, as Johnson established an early rhythm, connecting on his first 3 on UMHB’s second possession. That long-range bucket was sandwiched between a pair of layups from Zach Engels as The Cru scored on its first three possessions. 17 of Johnson’s 21 points came in the first half, including three of his four 3s, with the Round Rock native firing on all cylinders. His offensive output certainly contributed to UMHB’s early separation, with The Cru going up by as much as 12 on a layup from Coady with 3:11 until halftime.
But Centenary quickly caught fire from long-range, similar to the opening-game run the Gents had four weeks before in Belton. Kane Broussand, Beverly, and Bryce Evans hit three consecutive 3s, pulling the hosts back within a single possession, 38-35, as the clock ticked into the half’s final minute.
It set up the perfect scenario for a two-for-one, following the same trajectory as the half-closing sequence in the first meeting against the Gents. That one saw Coady score on a layup with 37 seconds left before a quick defensive stop led to a buzzer-beating halfcourt 3 from Johnson. This time around, Johnson took both shots, with his 3 at the 40-second mark followed by a jumper with just four seconds left, as The Cru took a 43-35 lead into halftime.
While UMHB led for the entirety of the second half, Centenary went stride-for-stride most of the way, cutting it to 46-42 within the first three minutes before a 6-0 Crusader spurt defused the threat. Aside from UMHB’s 13-2 run in the last five minutes, one of the most crucial points of the final 20 minutes came when Centenary’s Jaden Braden fouled out with 7:36 left. Already using a small rotation—just eight players saw action for the Gents—losing one of its key ballhandlers and defensive catalysts proved difficult for Centenary to overcome.
“We felt like we had to take advantage when he fouled out, because he’s the guy that gets them going, in terms of facilitating,” Patterson noted of Braden, who had three assists and did not turn the ball over in 21 minutes.
UMHB did just that, creating pressure on the defensive end. Centenary turned it over just seven times—the Gents’ second-lowest total of the season—but three of those seven came after Braden fouled out.
With poise and sound execution in the closing minutes of the second half, the Crusaders emerged from the road duel with another tally added to the win column. Friday’s contest marked The Cru’s first road game at Centenary since Jan. 8, 2001, and gave UMHB its first win in Shreveport in its D3 history.
If anything has been evident through the season’s first 11 games, it’s the fact that this is a roster built on balance, depth, and selflessness. And one that relishes the chance to rise to a challenge.
“You see it every year, with every team, there’s always going to be a moment where it’s like, ‘Man, I hope such-and-such is ready and answers the call,’” Patterson said. “And so far, everybody has really been ready. Everybody has been selfless in pouring themselves into the team.”
| Box Score | 1ST | 2ND | FINAL |
| UMHB | 43 | 48 | 91 |
| CENTENARY | 35 | 40 | 75 |
