Covering UMHB Athletics and the stories behind the score
BELTON — Shortly after Friday’s 97-89 win over LeTourneau in the American Southwest Conference Tournament semifinal round, Clif Carroll and Eli Beard sat side by side in a press conference, the star guard who had just put up a tournament-record 44 points and the head coach who had relentlessly recruited him through high school and a pair of junior college stops.
MARSHALL, Texas — Eli Beard had no intention of letting The Cru come up short on Friday afternoon, not after suffering back-to-back losses by a combined three points less than week prior.
BELTON — The first seven minutes played out at a frenetic pace, Howard Payne’s up-tempo, run-and-gun, fourth-in-the-nation offense clashing with Mary Hardin-Baylor’s speed and athleticism.
MARSHALL, Texas — It would’ve been easy to throw in the towel. To quit on themselves, on the coaching staff, on the season, in the midst of a frustrating three-game losing skid.
ABILENE, Texas — Over the course of a college basketball season, teachable moments come about in a variety of scenarios, some more favorable on the scoreboard than others. And inside the Mabee Complex on Saturday afternoon, UMHB found itself faced with one of those moments—a “wake up call” perhaps—in an outcome that left The Cru on the wrong end of a 25-point game.
BROWNWOOD, Texas — It takes a certain level of tenacity to win against the style UMHB faced on Thursday night.
RICHARDSON, Texas — Since Christmas, Clif Carroll and his team have taken the floor just three times. The Cru played on consecutive days in late December, going 2-0 at the Cru Classic, including a massive 78-77 win over ninth-ranked Illinois Wesleyan.
Few regular-season home wins in UMHB history can match the kind of performance that unfolded inside the Mayborn Campus Center on Monday evening.
BELTON — The second half was enough of a wake up call to stick in the minds of the Mary Hardin-Baylor men’s basketball team for quite some time, though not so drastic as to sting in the win-loss column.
LEXINGTON, Kentucky — After dropping Saturday’s opener at the Don Lane Classic in a 73-60 loss to Transylvania, Clif Carroll made it clear that more energy would be needed from his team on Sunday against Albion.
And he got exactly that from his squad, especially on the defensive end. They affected Albion’s offensive flow possession after possession, deflecting passes, forcing the Britons into difficult shots, and holding them to just 20 points in the paint.