Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
men's basketball team used a red-hot shooting night and solid defensive
effort to cruise past conference rival Concordia Texas and into the
Sectional Round of the NCAA Division III National
Championships Saturday
night in Belton. The Cru rolled to a 117-92 over the Tornados in the
fourth meeting between the two teams this season. UMHB is now 24-5 on
the season while the loss ends Concordia's season at 24-6.
The two teams traded the lead six times and there
were five ties in the early going. UMHB started to pull away with a 6-0
run to push the lead to 31-22 with 9:31 left in the first half.
Concordia would close back to within seven on two
occasions, but the Cru opened up as much as a 15 point lead in the
final minutes before settling for a 58-45 halftime lead. Back-to-back
Cory Meals three-pointers allowed UMHB to take the lead over 20 points
for the first time and the Cru stretched it out
to as many as 29 points. The Tornados never got closer than 21 points
the rest of the way as UMHB pushed its record against Concordia to 3-1
on the season.
Brian Todd had a huge game for the Cru with 28
points and 15 rebounds. James Allen added 27 points and seven boards,
Thomas Orr chipped in 18 points, Meals finished with 17 and Russell
Green scored 12 points and pulled down seven rebounds
off the bench. UMHB shot 56 percent from the field in the first half
and hit 55 percent for the game. The Cru also out rebounded the Tornados
49-41 while hitting 9-23 from three-point range.
Dwayne Patterson topped Concordia with 24 points
and eight rebounds. Josh Sanchez added 18 points, but hit just 2-12 from
the field. Brett DeMetrotion scored 14 points and Nick Haynes chipped
in 11 for the Tornados. Concordia hit just
38 percent from the field and only made 4-24 from beyond the arc.
The Cru will now advance to the Sectional Round
to face either Whitworth University of Emory University for the right to
advance to the Division III Elite Eight. The Sectional Round will be
played on Saturday, March 16th and
the site for that game will be announced Sunday evening.
