BELTON, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men’s basketball team built a double-digit first half lead and then held off Covenant College’s comeback bid in the second half as the Cru posted a 77-64 victory over the Scots Friday evening in Belton. The contest closed out the opening day of the four-team, two-day Cru Classic at the Mayborn Campus Center. UMHB improves to 11-1 on the season with the victory while the loss drops Covenant to 5-4 on the year.
The Scots opened the scoring with a three-pointer, but UMHB answered with an 8-0 run and went on to lead 40-29 at halftime. The Cru advantage would grow to 15 early in the second half before Covenant started to chip away. The Scots would pull to within 55-51 with 8:25 remaining in the game, but UMHB scored six straight on jumpers from Byrale Carter and Ryan Lang and two Sam Moore free-throws to extend the lead back to double figures. Covenant would not close the gap to less than nine points the rest of the way as the Cru held on for the team’s fifth straight victory.
Moore topped UMHB with 17 points on 3-5 shooting from beyond the arc. Carter added 16 points, Brian Long had 13 and Shaqur Martin came off the bench to score 10. Mike Davis had nine rebounds and six assists for the Cru. UMHB shot 47 percent from the field and went 18-24 from the free-throw stripe. The Cru also out rebounded the Scots 40-34 and forced 23 turnovers.
Will Crumly led Covenant with 16 points and 13 rebounds, but no other player reached double figures for the Scots. Covenant was held to 37 percent shooting as a team and only hit 10-41 from three-point range in the loss.
The Cru will close out the Cru Classic with a 5 pm tip against Hendrix College on Saturday. Covenant will take on Louisiana College in a 3 pm start to open the day’s action.
