Sul Ross opened the game with an 18-0 run as UMHB went scoreless for the first 6:11 before Justin Schwartz hit a three-pointer. The Lobos led by 17 at halftime and still led 61-46 at the 12:24 mark of the second half. At that point, UMHB’s Neiman Ford and Sul Ross State’s C.J. Acosta were both ejected and the Crusaders responded with a quick 9-0 run to close to within 61-55. The Lobos pushed the lead back to double digits and led by 10 at 74-64 with 4:51 left to play. UMHB kept chipping away at the lead and finally grabbed the lead on Tim Lytle’s three-pointer with 1:50 remaining to make it 79-77. Matt Santa Cruz answered with a three-pointer to give Sul Ross an 80-79 edge, but the Crusaders got a three-pointer from Justin Schwartz on the next possession to retake the lead at 82-80. UMHB added five more points before a Santa Cruz lay-up with six seconds left cut it to 87-82. Schwartz then nailed two more free-throws to provide the final margin.
Patrick Oliver led UMHB with 24 points and he added eight rebounds and three blocks. Oliver also went over 1,000 points for his career with his first bucket of the game. Schwartz added 16 points and 10 rebounds off the bench, Kevin Guyden scored 17 for the Cru and Lytle scored 14 points off the bench. Sidney Hooper led the Lobos with 30 points on 12-21 shooting and Arturo Escobar added 18 points on a 7-11 night. Acosta had 13 points before his ejection and Santa Cruz added 10 for Sul Ross. The Lobos shot 54 per cent from the field and 44 per cent from three-point range, but only hit 2-7 from the free-throw line. UMHB shot 47 per cent from the field and hit 28-39 from the stripe while out rebounding Sul Ross State 43-28 in the victory.
The Crusaders will continue their home stand on Saturday with a 3:00 PM start against Howard Payne University. The Yellow Jackets enter Saturday’s game in first place in the ASC West Division.