Photo courtesy of Hardin-Simmons Athletics
ABILENE — When two teams are meeting for the third time in five weeks, as UMHB and ETBU did in Friday’s American Southwest Conference Tournament semifinal, there is very little about either side’s gameplan that comes as a surprise for the opponent.
In that situation, the game isn’t won by new schemes or catching the opponent off-guard because of unfamiliarity. Rather, the outcome is decided by who plays to their own strengths the best, while keeping those of the opponent in-check.
Tangling with the Tigers for the first time since the Feb. 7 overtime thriller in Belton, UMHB (19-7, 5-1 ASC) did exactly that inside Hardin-Simmons’ Mabee Complex. The nation’s No. 2 rebounding team controlled the offensive glass, dominated in second-chance scoring, and pulled past ETBU (7-19, 1-5 ASC) in an 89-84 victory.
The five-point win secured a third-straight trip to the ASC championship game for UMHB, who will face top-seeded Hardin-Simmons (17-9, 5-1 ASC) at 6 p.m. CT on Saturday night in Abilene, with a bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line.
“I’m happy that we were able to make big plays down the stretch to close out the game at the end,” Zachary Engels, who had 12 points and five rebounds, said postgame. “It’s the first step in a bigger mission to go on and win the conference tournament. So I’m happy we got it done tonight, but the focus is shifted onto tomorrow.”
With just 15 seconds left in a four-point game, UMHB’s Donta Coady missed his second free throw after making the first, which by itself would have given ETBU an open door to pull back within a single possession. But Engels, UMHB’s 6-foot-4 senior wing, rose up above the Tiger rebounders, securing possession in mid-air, snatching the opportunity away from ETBU, before smartly dribbling out to the perimeter and handing off to Hudson Johnson—a career 84.4% free throw shooter—as more precious time ran off the clock.
By the time ETBU finally fouled, the Tigers had sent UMHB’s best free throw shooter to the line with four more seconds having elapsed. Johnson made 1-of-2, then added two more seven seconds later, sealing UMHB’s semifinal win.
Engels’ offensive rebound was The Cru’s 22nd of the night, evenly balancing them with 11 apiece in both the first and second halves. All evening, the aggressiveness to get to the glass after one of their own missed shots paid dividends for the visitors from Belton, who turned those 22 offensive boards into 36 second-chance points. By comparison, ETBU had just 10 second-chance points on 14 offensive rebounds, giving UMHB a +26 advantage in that category. In a win-or-go-home setting where ETBU knocked down five more 3s and had just one fewer made field goal than UMHB, the Crusaders’ rebounding rose to the occasion.
“If you look at the two games prior that we played ETBU, we were pretty even on the glass,” UMHB head coach Sam Patterson said after earning his first career postseason victory in Year 1 leading The Cru. “We definitely wanted to challenge our guys, because that is our identity. I do think our guys rose to the challenge.”
The two regular season meetings against ETBU—both UMHB wins—yielded mixed rebound margins of +4 and -9 for Patterson’s squad, with the battle on the boards fairly tight for the better part of both games. But on Friday, they went into halftime up 12, 31-19, and finished with a +10 margin, their best against a Division III opponent since out-rebounding LeTourneau by 18 on Jan. 5.
The 36 second-chance points were significant too, a new season-high that bested their previous top mark of 31, set against Belhaven in the season’s third game.
“We were up 20-4 at the half on second-chance points, and then we finished 36 to 10 for the game,” Patterson continued. “That’s a big piece of our offense. You can’t be an efficient offense if you don’t get offensive rebounds. Because when you get those offensive rebounds, you’re in a high-scoring area, you’re in a high foul rate area. Good things happen when we [are in those spots], and it gives us some dagger kick-out 3s as well.
“Even [Engels’] free throw line rebound at the end of the game. I said after the game, ‘How fitting for this team to clinch that game at the free throw line on the rebounding side of things’, because that’s who we are and it’s a credit to their toughness.”
UMHB displayed plenty of toughness in a duel that was physical from start to finish. Contact was plentiful around the rim and for the most part, the officials let both teams play through it, setting the tone for a game where being the aggressor was crucial.
The rebounding certainly showed that, and so did the offensive approach. The Cru worked the ball inside consistently throughout both halves in addition to pushing the pace on fast-breaks when opportunities arose. UMHB put up 50 points in the paint for the third time this season, two of which have come against ETBU.
“It’s our identity,” Connor Zamiara, who grabbed 15 rebounds and was UMHB’s primary frontcourt presence, said of the physicality in the game. “We’ve all got a chip on our shoulder to be the first ones to hit, and not get hit. It’s a part of the game I love, and I know a lot of my teammates love it as well. We can mix it up down there [in the paint], and if the refs are going to let us play, that’s our game.”
Zamiara had several key plays in the paint in his 30 minutes on the floor, starting with the tip-in of Donta Coady’s missed layup for a 9-8 lead just over four minutes into the opening half. The Cru went up 14-10 two minutes later on Grant Jessen’s fast-break score, but ETBU quickly reeled UMHB back in, going on a 9-0 run capped by Mitch Williams’ 3-pointer for a 19-14 advantage.
The trading of the lead came early and often, with 14 lead changes in the opening 20 minutes alone. UMHB got the lead back on a Johnson 3 with 9:50 until halftime, only for WIlliams to answer 17 seconds later on the other end. The point of separation came with under five minutes to go, when Jessen leapt up and secured an offensive rebound before quickly finding Johnson for a second-chance score.
That sparked a 10-0 run from the second-seeded Crusaders, highlighted by a coast-to-coast layup from Johnson, in which he spun around a defender at midcourt before going straight to the rim, giving The Cru a 45-34 lead.
“Before the game, Coach Patt put an emphasis on that we had to get out and run,” noted Johnson, who was the game’s leading scorer with 28 points. “It is one of our strengths, and obviously if we can get good shots on the other end before the defense is set, that makes it easy for us.”
UMHB carried a 45-39 lead into halftime. But ETBU wasn’t without momentum of its own after closing on a 5-0 spurt. The Tigers ratched up their intensity coming out of the break, tying the score five times in the first six minutes of the second half. The Cru countered, pushing its lead to as many as nine before ETBU yet again fought back into it. This time, the Tigers took the lead themselves, as Michael Roberts, ETBU’s versatile 6-foot-6 senior forward, scored inside for a 74-73 advantage that brought the small crowd of ETBU supporters to their feet.
Of course, finding themselves trailing with less than 10 minutes left was nothing new for UMHB, who in the month of February alone, erased a 10-point deficit with 5:37 left to beat HSU and overcame a 12-point second-half deficit in the home win over ETBU. The Cru did not flinch this time, either, as Elijah Lawrence reclaimed the lead on the ensuing possession, followed by a poised 3 from Coady just in front of UMHB’s bench.
Down the stretch, the Tigers pulled within two points of tying the score three different times. And in each instance, UMHB immediately found a way to almost immediately regain separation, whether by a layup from Engels or a trip to the free throw line for Johnson.
For a team with over half of its wins by single-digits—10 of 19—executing with maturity down the stretch has become routine for The Cru. Of course, the experience on the roster helps plenty with that, as four of UMHB’s five starters had already played in at least three years of ASC Tournament play before tipping off on Friday. They knew what they were in for, playing a neutral court game against a familiar opponent at a time of the year when records tend to go out the window and toughness, physicality, and heart decide whose season continues.
“I feel like it’s second nature for a lot of us at this point,” said Engels, who appeared in his fifth career ASC Tournament game on Friday. “All three of us up here (Engels, Zamiara, Johnson) have been playing in this conference for four years, so we know every tournament game is going to come down to it. Having that experience over the past few years, and having a senior-led group of guys to lean on at the end of games [has been key].”
By winning Friday evening, UMHB earned itself not only a chance to cut down the nets as tournament champions, but also a shot at redemption. Two weeks ago, HSU beat UMHB, 86-80, in Abilene, handing the Crusaders their first, and only, conference loss of the season. Now, with an NCAA Tournament bid at stake, The Cru gets another opportunity to knock off HSU on its home floor.
“You don’t take for granted the opportunity to play for a championship,” Patterson said. “For these guys to have the opportunity to win the regular season championship at home [last Saturday] and take advantage of it, and now put yourselves in position to do it in the tournament, is something you don’t take for granted.
“After doing this for so long, you remember the moments that make up a championship game, especially in a tournament setting, where it’s survive-and-advance, win-or-go-home. We want to be a desperate team tomorrow. I think desperation is good in late February and March. I know this senior group is going to make sure we dominate our recovery tonight. I’m excited about the opportunity.”
When a season begins, no team has a picture of how it will ultimately go. The 25-game regular season slate over four months leaves plenty of room for unexpected twists and turns. But every team opens a new season with knowing where it ultimately wants to go. For UMHB, that goal has been vocalized time and time again, just as it was in Friday’s postgame press conference: win the ASC title.
They may have been picked third in the ASC’s preseason poll, but internally, this team always expected to end up here, playing for a championship and the right to represent in the ASC on a national stage.
Zamiara was asked after Friday’s win about what it meant to get back to the title game with this team in his final season as a Crusader. He responded simply and directly.
“It’s just where we’re supposed to be.”
UMHB Stat Leaders
Points: Hudson Johnson (28), Elijah Lawrence (14), Zachary Engels (12)
Rebounds: Connor Zamiara (15), Grant Jessen (9), Donta Coady (7), Elijah Lawrence (7)
Assists: Cam Stinson (4), Grant Jessen (3)
Steals: Zachary Engels (3), Cam Stinson (2)
