News Release

Belton, Tx.; — The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men’s basketball team battled back from an eight-point second half deficit and then held off a late Mississippi College charge to post a 66-64 victory over the nationally-ranked Choctaws Saturday afternoon in Belton. The Crusaders win their third straight game and improve to 3-2 overall and 3-1 in American Southwest Conference play. The Choctaws, ranked 16th in the country by D3hoops.com, fall to 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the ASC with the loss.
Mississippi College led 41-33 with 17:23 remaining in the game before UMHB went on a 17-4 run to take a 50-45 lead with 11:36 left to play. The two teams would then trade the lead four times and there were three ties before UMHB went up66-61 on Patrick Oliver’s free-throw with 40 seconds left. MC got a three-pointer from Orlando Lewis with eight seconds left to cut it to 66-64. UMHB then missed the front end of a one-and-one and Jonathan Collins’ desperation three-pointer rimmed out at the buzzer.
UMHB led by six points at 20-14 early in the first half before the Choctaws went on an 18-2 run to take a 10-point lead at 32-22. UMHB closed the half with a 9-4 run to cut it to 36-31 at halftime.
The Crusaders shot 41 per cent from the field and held MC to 37 per cent shooting in the win. UMHB also out rebounded the Choctaws 48-40. Brandon Gatlin scored a game-high 20 points to lead the Crusaders and Patrick Oliver added 18 points and eight rebounds for UMHB. Ryan Burgart came off the bench to hit 5-6 from the field and finish with 10 points for the Cru. Orlando Lewis was the only Choctaw in double figures with 12 points and Timothy Broomfield added eight points and 11 boards. Ten different players scored in a balanced scoring effort for MC.
The UMHB men will now be off for two weeks before returning to action. The Crusaders will travel to Richardson on December 17th for a 3:00 PM tip-off at U.T.-Dallas.