Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor women’s basketball team could not overcome an early deficit and the Cru women fell to 2nd-ranked Howard Payne University 69-45 Thursday night in Belton. The UMHB women lost their third straight game to fall to 8-7 overall and 6-5 in American Southwest Conference play. The Lady Jackets improve to 16-0 overall and 12-0 in the ASC with the victory.

The Lady Jackets led by 18 at halftime after holding UMHB to just 32 per cent shooting from the field. HPU then opened the second half with an 11-0 run to make it a 29-point lead and UMHB could not battle back. The Cru women never got closer than 24 points the rest of the way until Courtney Wolfe hit a pair of free-throws with 35 seconds left to provide the final margin.

Kellie Thomas led UMHB with 18 points off the bench and she also grabbed a team-high five rebounds. Jenny Black had seven points for the Cru women, all of them in the first half. Stacey Blalock led HPU with 18 points and Kimberly Hoffman added 17 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Meia Daniels added 10 points and five assists for HPU but played just 24 minutes after injuring her thumb. The Lady jackets out rebounded UMHB 45-34 and shot 41 per cent from the field. The Cru women hit just 33 per cent from the field and went 1-14 from three-point range in the loss.

The UMHB women will close out their home stand with a 1:00 PM tip-off against Sul Ross State on Saturday. The Cru women will then travel to Kerrville to take on Schreiner University in a 5:30 PM start on Thursday night.