Photo of Josie Bruder by Luke Zayas/Backwards Hat Photography
BELTON — On a night when the UMHB women’s basketball team needed a strong scoring presence, The Cru turned to a pair of seniors to lead the way.
Josie Bruder set a new career-high with 29 points on Tuesday, connecting on five 3-pointers, while Rachel Okoye added 23 more, going 12-of-12 at the free throw line. The duo combined to account for 78.7% of UMHB’s scoring in a high-quality non-conference home duel against St. Thomas.
But St. Thomas had three double-digit scorers of its own, and in a down-to-the-wire overtime finish inside the Mayborn Campus Center, the Celts emerged victorious, handing UMHB a 71-66 loss. It marked The Cru’s third single-digit loss in its last four games and its sixth of the season, yet another performance in which Katie Novak-Lenoir’s squad battled tremendously well, and just couldn’t catch enough breaks down the stretch.
With under 30 seconds left in regulation, UST’s Macie Whitfield missed a go-ahead layup and Okoye grabbed one of her eight rebounds on the night, giving UMHB the ball in a game tied at 60 apiece with 21.7 seconds to go.
As soon as Okoye took possession, Novak-Lenoir began signaling for a timeout, which would allow UMHB to advance the ball and inbound in front of its own bench. But by the time the whistle blew, Okoye had already taken three steps up the court. That meant the ball instead had to be inbounded in the backcourt, as Okoye hadn’t crossed midcourt when the timeout was called.
It changed what plays UMHB could call, but the Crusaders adjusted, with Okoye working the ball to Natalia Galvan on the right wing for the potential game-winner. But UST’s Amyia Bowie closed out quickly, forcing Galvan to dribble forwards and put up a shot that was just a little too strong, pushing the game into overtime.
UST’s Laura Jones hit a 3 for the first points of the extra period, but the Celt lead never widened beyond three for the first four minutes, with UMHB twice cutting the deficit to one. That changed with 41 seconds left, when Whitfield—UST’s leading scorer with 18 points—drew a foul and got her layup to fall, completing the three-point play moments later for a 48-44 advantage.
Okoye kept her perfect night at the free throw line going six seconds later, draining a pair of free throws to pull UMHB within two. But rather than fouling quickly to send UST to the free throw line and get the ball back, The Cru chose to play it out with a roughly six-second differential between the shot and game clocks, looking for a defensive stop followed by a quick coast-to-coast score.
They got the stop, initially. But it came at the expense of precious time, as UST ran the shot clock down near zero, then tracked down an offensive rebound when Branasia Brazelton finally put up a long 3-point attempt. Madyson Solis fouled Whitfield immediately with 3.0 seconds left, but with no timeouts, it limited The Cru’s options when they retook possession trailing by three after Whitfield went 1-of-2 at the free throw line. Galvan threw a long overhand pass into the frontcourt intended for Bruder, but Kenna Gibson intercepted it instead, securing the Celts’ road win.
“I went into the locker room right away,” Novak-Lenoir said. “I told them, ‘That game is on me. I need to do better executing end-of-game situations, and I’ll do better going forwards.’”
UST elevated its record to 7-3 overall and 3-1 on the road, with the Celts also 3-0 against the ASC this season, having taken down East Texas Baptist twice. UMHB, now 4-13, will hit the road for its next three games, traveling north to Connecticut for a pair of non-conference duels before facing ETBU in a Jan. 17 ASC opener upon arrival back in Texas.
Bruder’s 29-point performance bettered her previous collegiate career-high by four, set in The Cru’s last meeting with St. Thomas during the 2024-25 season. The senior forward gave UMHB its first lead of the night on a pair of free throws 45 seconds into the first quarter, and had 12 points by halftime.
After registering her fifth block of the season early in the third, she knocked down her first 3 of the second half, adding fuel to UMHB’s 12-2 scoring run, which was sparked by an Okoye 3-pointer on The Cru’s opening possession. The spurt stretched between the 9:27 and 6:35 marks of the third, started and ended with an Okoye score, as the hosts erased UST’s 24-22 halftime lead and pulled ahead by eight.
Okoye had seven points in that run, and Bruder ended up with six in the quarter, helping keep the margin tight even after the Celts closed the third with 16 of the next 22 points. UST led 44-41 heading into the final 10 minutes, and soon widened the advantage to five, but once again paced by Okoye and Bruder, UMHB refocused and charged back.
“I was really glad to see the chemistry Rachel and Josie had,” Novak-Lenoir said postgame. “That was a really big positive to see them playing how we know they can play. They both gave us so much.”
Okoye and Karlee Cronk got layups to fall early in the fourth, then Okoye sank a pair of free throws that trimmed the deficit to one. 55 seconds later, Bruder connected from beyond the arc again, with her third 3 of the night giving UMHB a 50-48 lead. Jayda Morris quickly answered for UST, but Bruder again stepped up with 4:10 left, breaking a 50-50 tie with an assist from Okoye.
And the very next possession? Bruder hit another 3, stretching the lead to six with 3:25 to go.
UMHB did its best to hold off UST’s rally, but a 3 from Gibson—who went 4-of-11 from beyond the arc—ignited a 10-2 spurt to put the visitors from Houston back in front with 1:38 left in regulation. The Cru needed a game-tying bucket on its next trip down the floor, and found one on a smooth baseline jumper from freshman Pierce Scheppler, who connected on her fourth field goal attempt of the night with the shot clock at two.
Scheppler’s shot set up the intense finish to regulation and the overtime that followed, as the Lubbock native scored eight or more points in a game for the third time this season. She also had seven rebounds, the second-most on the team.
Reflecting on the game afterwards, it was hard for the Crusaders to not view it as a win that slipped through their fingertips. But there is a big picture at play, even for as much as the here-and-now matters in the moment. With its at-large bid chances entirely gone, UMHB’s path to an NCAA Tournament appearance lies solely with winning the American Southwest Conference automatic bid on Feb. 29.
Every game leading up to ASC Tournament weekend is preparation for those two days at the end of February, which will ultimately determine the fate of The Cru’s season. And from a big-picture standpoint, similar to Saturday’s two-point loss at McMurry, UMHB got better on Tuesday night. The Crusaders limited their turnovers to 15, the fewest in a game since Nov. 29—11 games ago. They shot 22-of-24 at the free throw line, their second-highest free throw percentage in a game this season, and the most made FTs since Feb. 15, 2024.
“I’m proud of the effort,” Novak-Lenoir said. “I thought we could’ve done a better job rebounding, but this is the first time we’ve had 15 turnovers or less in a long time, and we did a better job taking care of the ball. I’m looking at this as we need to improve every day and every game to be ready for conference. That’s on my end too. I think today the team improved in a lot of the different ways that we’re asking them to.”
UMHB now turns its attention to its east coast trip, set to begin on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. CT against Coast Guard in New London, Connecticut. Coast Guard, a member of the NEWMAC conference, was picked fifth in the league’s preseason poll and is 7-5 overall with a current two-game win streak. The Bears are led by senior guard Dorothy Stotts, a Minnesota native who is averaging 18.8 points and 3.0 assists per game.
Saturday will mark UMHB’s first-ever matchup against USCGA, and The Cru’s first game in the eastern part of the U.S. since a Dec. 20, 2023 win over Millsaps in New York City.
