The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor women’s basketball team will play as a #1 seed for just the second time in program history when the Cru opens play in the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament Thursday afternoon. The UMHB women will be making their 14th overall appearance in the ASC Tournament.
The Cru goes into the tournament with a 21-4 overall record and posted a 14-3 conference record to win the ASC West Division for the second time. UMHB opens the tournament with a 2:30 PM Quarterfinal Game against East Division #4 seed Louisiana College (14-10) in Richardson. The Cru won the regular season meeting between the two teams 79-67 in Belton in January. Hannah Holt had 24 points and 10 rebounds to lead UMHB in that game. Brooke Jones led the Wildcats with 19 points in the loss and the Cru out rebounded Louisiana College 51-32 in the game. Holt goes into the ASC Tournament as the leading scorer in the conference at 18.7 points per game. Kendall Rollins is scoring 15.9 points per game for UMHB. Alicia Blackwell has a team-high 115 assists and Meghan Tuner is at 105 assists on the year. Jones leads the Wildcats in scoring at 16.0 points per game and she is also the team’s leading rebounder at 6.9 boards per contest. The UMHB-LC winner will advance to a 5:00 PM Semifinal Game on Friday to face the winner of the U.T.-Tyler (17-8) vs. Concordia Texas (14-11) Quarterfinal. The other side of the bracket will see Howard Payne (15-10) facing East Texas Baptist (19-6) and tournament host U.T.-Dallas (22-3) taking on Hardin-Simmons (6-19) those two winners will face off in a 7:30 PM Semifinal on Friday. The ASC Championship Game is set for 6:00 PM on Saturday with the winner clinching the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Championships.
The UMHB women are looking for their first ASC title and have an all-time record of 9-13 in ASC Tournament play. The Cru has also already tied the school Division III era single-season record with its 21 victories. U.T.-Dallas is the defending ASC Champion and the Comets have won three of the last five conference crowns.
The 2018 ASC Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament will be played at the UTD Activity Center on the campus of the University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson. UTD will provide live video and live statistical coverage of all of the tournament games and you can access that coverage through the UMHB Athletic Department web site at www.cruathletics.com. For more information on the ASC Women’s Basketball Championship Tournament, please visit UTD’s Tournament Central page at the following link: http://utdcomets.com/sports/2018/2/19/2018-asc-womens-basketball-tournament.aspx.
