The second half featured five ties and seven lead changes and Howard Payne took a 64-63 lead on Tom Herrman’s three-point play with 2:59 remaining in the game. Chris Poole’s free-throw tied the game at 64 with 2:47 to go, but Josh Weatherred added a free-throw to put the Yellow Jackets up 65-64 with 1:46 remaining. Ryan Burgart blocked a shot that would have give HPU a 67-64 edge and Kevin Guyden converted two free-throws at the other end to put UMHB on top 66-65. Connor Kuykendall hit two more clutch free-throws to give the Cru a 68-65 lead with 23 seconds to go. Lee Scott’s lay-up pulled HPU to within 68-67 with 17 seconds to play. Zane Johnston then hit three more free-throws for the Cru in the final five seconds to provide the final margin of victory as the Yellow Jackets missed three-pointers on both of their final two trips down the court.
Kevin Guyden led UMHB with 22 points and he went 11-12 from the free-throw line. Johnson added 10 points and Poole and Burgart chipped in eight points apiece for the Cru. Matt Dickey had a game-high eight rebounds for the UMHB men. Sean Wheeler led HPU with 16 points and Kendrick Johnson added 14 points. Lee Scott came off the bench to score 11 points for the Yellow Jackets. UMHB out rebounded HPU 45-32 and held the Yellow Jackets to 39 per cent shooting from the field. The Cru hit just 42 per cent from the field and turned the ball over 24 times.
The UMHB men will continue their road trip with a 6:30 PM tip-off at Sul Ross State Monday evening in Alpine. That game was originally scheduled for Thursday night, but was moved to Monday due to weather and travel concerns.