Box Score
Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men’s basketball team took control of the game early in the first half and the Cru never looked back on the way to a 104-86 victory over Howard Payne University Saturday in Belton. The UMHB men improve to 10-5 overall and 8-3 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The victory was also win #200 for Cru head coach Ken DeWeese at UMHB. He becomes the first coach in UMHB basketball history to post 200 career victories at the school. The loss drops the Yellow Jackets to 2-13 overall and 2-9 in the ASC on the season.
UMHB opened the game with a 14-5 run before the Yellow Jackets battled back to cut the lead to 14-12 with 15:55 remaining. The Cru would use an 11-1 run to push the lead to double digits at 25-13 with 12:53 left. HPU would close to within nine points twice more in the first half, but the Cru closed the half with a rush to take a 54-37 halftime lead. UMHB never led by less than 15 points in the second half and would stretch the lead to as many as 23 points to cruise to the win.
Dean Pele topped UMHB with 17 points and Zane Johnston added 16 points after hitting 4-5 from three-point range. Sterling Phillips also reached double figures with 12 points for UMHB, and all of those points came in the first half. Fourteen different players scored for the Cru and 18 players played in the game for UMHB. Brandon Irwin had a career day for the Yellow Jackets, scoring a career-high 31 points on 11-15 shooting. Quentin Calloway added 21 points and Keith Perry chipped in with 15 for HPU.
UMHB shot 56 per cent from the field, including 61 per cent in the first half. UMHB also hit 12-20 three-point shots in the game and out rebounded HPU 44-22. The Cru held a 23-7 rebounding edge in the first half. HPU shot 52 per cent from the field and went 10-24 from three-point range in the game.
The UMHB men will travel to Seguin to take on Texas Lutheran University in a 7:30 PM tip-off next Thursday. The Cru will then return home to host Schreiner University for a 3:00 PM start next Saturday at the Mayborn Campus Center.