Photo by Luke Zayas/Backwards Hat Media
BELTON — Effectively translating good defense into good offense requires equal contribution from two parts. On the defensive end, the team must stay locked in for the entirety of the possession, coming up with a turnover or forcing a difficult shot and securing the rebound. Then on the ensuing trip to the other end of the floor, the offense must have the awareness, ball security, and communication to create a quality shot and convert on it.
Put those two together, and it becomes a difficult formula to beat.
The UMHB women’s basketball team had the defensive component under control for much of Thursday night’s 69-56 loss to Hardin-Simmons, keeping the pressure on the Cowgirls with an effective backcourt press and numerous contested shots. But the same couldn’t be said for the scoring aspect in the second half, as two quarters of inconsistent offense saw The Cru create several opportunities, but struggle to capitalize on them.
After being deadlocked in a 38-38 halftime tie, HSU (15-3, 1-0 ASC) outscored UMHB (6-15, 0-2 ASC), 31-18, over the final 20 minutes, giving the Cowgirls a 10th consecutive road win. The Crusaders, who made 15 of their 31 shots over the first two quarters, were just 6-of-27 in the second half, including eight missed 3s.
“The effort level was pretty good,” UMHB head coach Katie Novak-Lenoir said afterwards. “I think we missed some 50-50 balls that we should’ve had. We continue to not take care of the ball very well. Those things add up when you’re playing a good team.
“We didn’t take or make easy shots and some of it was missing people [in our rotation]. I’d like our cohesion to get a little bit better on offense. It was there for 20 minutes. Then it was gone.”
UMHB came out of the gate with a high level of intensity, playing at home for the first time since Jan. 6 and facing a rival who earned the third-most vote points of any unranked team in Monday’s D3hoops.com Top 25 poll. Sophomore forward Kayla Johns-McGarity, a mid-year transfer in her fourth game with The Cru, connected on each of her first two shots, giving the hosts the lead on both occasions. Josie Bruder then scored five straight points of her own, hitting a 3 from the right-wing that put UMHB back in front yet again, 9-8.
“She’s been doing a great job for us,” Novak-Lenoir said of Johns-McGarity, who had nine points, a team-high 11 rebounds, and two blocks. “With her toughness and inside presence, I don’t think we get her the ball enough.”
The Crusaders seemingly matched every successful move by the HSU scoring attack with one of their own, building the lead out to 26-20 less than three minutes into the second quarter when Rachel Okoye forced back-to-back HSU turnovers. Each of those steals were the result of UMHB’s full-court pressure, forcing the Cowgirl ballhandlers into mistakes in their own half of the court. On each takeaway, The Cru scored on the other end, aided by offensive rebounds in both instances. It was the perfect representation of relentless defense flowing into effective offense, and drew the large crowd back into it, providing a true home-court advantage in The Cru’s conference home opener.
“We did a good job of doing what we do well,” Novak-Lenoir said of the first half. “We played with a little bit of pace. We had our moments. I thought we made shots difficult for them. [Jacqueline] Berry is going to score because she’s so tough. But we were still making shots too. We got away from that in the second half.”
Berry, the 2024-25 D3hoops.com National Rookie of the Year, had a team-high 20 points for HSU, scoring the Cowgirls’ first five points of the second quarter. Her fifth point in that stretch came at the free throw line—where she shot 8-of-15 for the game, having drawn eight fouls—which cut The Cru’s advantage to five.
But Karlee Cronk answered for The Cru no less than 40 seconds later, grabbing Amillion Fowler’s missed jumper for an offensive rebound putback that extended the lead to 30-23 with 5:34 left. The second-chance scoring swung majorly in favor of the hosts in the first half, as UMHB turned its eight offensive rebounds into 11 points. Comparatively, HSU produced just two points off its five offensive boards, another credit to The Cru’s defensive effort.
The 30-23 margin turned out to be UMHB’s largest lead of the contest, but the Crusaders didn’t have much time to enjoy it. A MaeSyn Gay steal led straight to Caroline Croft’s driving layup less than a minute later, and out of a media timeout, Berry sank a free throw to pull HSU within four. Fowler and Bruder scored on consecutive possessions as part of a solid offensive second quarter—The Cru shot 52.9%—but Abbie Crow responded with back-to-back 3s for the Cowgirls, tying it up at 34 apiece.
The sequence summed up the story of the first half. Tightly-contested. Timely shot-making from both sides. Productive defense. The lead had changed hands six times, not to mention the seven ties, with the ASC foes knotted at 18-18 through the first quarter and 38-38 after the second.
But there was only one lead change in the second half, and it came 11 seconds in. Berry got to the free throw line once again, breaking the tie on her second shot, and HSU never trailed again. The Cowgirls scored the first five points of the third quarter before Novak-Lenoir called a timeout to regroup. The Cru battled over the next several minutes, forcing three straight missed shots and a turnover on the defensive end while Johns-McGarity and Fowler both scored in the paint. UMHB got the deficit to one on Fowler’s layup, and after HSU built back a six-point advantage, cut it back to two when Natalia Galvan banked in an off-balance midrange shot with 2:14 left in the third.
But the final two minutes of the third quarter were all HSU. Croft, who was an efficient 7-for-11 with 15 ponts and six assists, closed back-to-back possessions with layups. She then dished an assist to Dylan Koele, whose 3-point shot with four seconds left had very little arc to it, yet found its way into the bottom of the net. What had been a one-possession game two minutes before turned into a nine-point Cowgirl lead.
UMHB never stopped pushing down the stretch, though HSU held firmly to its lead, aided by The Cru making just 2 of its final 14 field-goal attempts. The hosts went the final 4:38 without a field goal, the last one coming when Fowler drove hard to the rim and drew a foul as her layup went down.
UMHB’s leading scorer with 14 points, Fowler completed the three-point play with a free throw, narrowing the deficit to 10. At the 2:14 mark, she added two more free throws to pull The Cru within eight. HSU had missed its last six shots to that point, but a UMHB comeback wasn’t meant to be. After The Cru failed to score off Okoye’s fourth steal, Berry capitalized with a layup and Koele hit her third 3 of the night, putting the game out of reach.
“We forced good turnovers,” Novak-Lenoir commented postgame. “I thought we hustled, but ran out of a little bit of gas because we were giving it a lot on the defensive end and then just couldn’t convert on the offensive end.
“There were moments of good, but we slowed the ball up too much when we needed a quick score or needed to get to the rim. I thought we passed up some open 3s in the second half, just people not being sure and confident. We’ve got to turn around Saturday and do better than we did today.”
The postponement of Thursday’s matchup—orginally scheduled for last Saturday but moved back due to the winter storm—gives UMHB a quick turnaround between its second and third contests in ASC play. The Cru travels to Brownwood Coliseum for Saturday’s 1 p.m. duel at Howard Payne (9-10, 0-0 ASC), who has already doubled last season’s win total under first-year coach Rodney Gee. UMHB heads into the matchup seeking its ninth-straight win over the Yellow Jackets, who are a much-improved squad compared to last year’s team that went 4-22.
“The quick turnaround is good for us mentally,” Novak-Lenoir said. “I keep telling them, ‘It’s all about what we’re doing at the end of the year now for the conference tournament.’ We have got to be getting better and working on our weaknesses so we can go win two games in a row [in the ASC tournament].
“We need to be more consistent. There’s no other option. Every conference game is going to be a battle. We’ve got to be more level-headed and consistent than we were today.”
UMHB stat leaders
Points: Amillion Fowler (14), Rachel Okoye (12), Josie Bruder (12)
Rebounds: Kayla Johns-McGarity (11), Rachel Okoye (6), Amillion Fowler (5)
Assists: Natalia Galvan (2), Amillion Fowler (2)
