The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men’s basketball team seized control of the game with a dominating first-half run and the Cru eased to an 87-80 victory over Millsaps College in the Cru Classic Thursday in Belton. UMHB improves to 8-4 on the season with the victory. The loss drops the Majors to 3-7 on the year.
Millsaps opened the game with a 10-3 run before the Cru exploded. Demarius Cress tied the game at 19 with a three-pointer as part of a 30-11 UMHB run. The Cru would lead by 12 points at that time and held a 46-37 advantage at halftime. The Majors closed to within six points in the early minutes of the second half before UMHB was able to open it up again. The Cru would stretch the lead out to 23 points at 78-55 with 5:37 remaining in the game. Millsaps was able to chip away from the free-throw line against UMHB’s reserves down the stretch to cut it to the final margin, but never got closer than seven points in the final five minutes.
Sam Moore topped UMHB with 27 points on 11-15 shooting from the field. Moore added a pair of thunderous dunks as the Cru opened up that big lead. Aubrie King had 17 points, seven rebounds and four assists off the bench and Cress also reached double figures with 14 points while dishing out five assists. UMHB shot 48 percent from the field as a team and went 10-27 from beyond the arc. The Cru also forced 16 Millsaps turnovers and ten different players scored for UMHB in the victory.
Michael Sullivan led the Majors with 14 points, but all of them came in the first half. Kalvin Spikes had 13 points and nine rebounds and Saxton Becker also chipped in 13 points. Millsaps shot 41 percent as a team, but hit just 4-27 on three-pointers. The Majors did win the rebounding battle by a 48-38 edge.
The Cru will close out the Cru Classic with a 5:00 PM tip-off against Milwaukee School of Engineering on Friday. UMHB returns to American Southwest Conference action with home games against Louisiana College and Belhaven University next week.
