Austin, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men’s basketball team turned up the heat on both ends of the floor and the Cru put the game away with a decisive second-half run as the UMHB men rolled to a 97-83 victory over Concordia Texas Tuesday night in Austin. The Cru improves to 16-3 overall and 13-2 in American Southwest Conference play as the UMHB men win for the fifth straight time. The victory also gives the Cru a three-game lead over second-place Hardin-Simmons in the ASC West Division. The loss drops Concordia to 12-7 overall and 9-6 in the ASC on the season.

UMHB trailed by as many as eight points in the first half before cutting Concordia’s lead to 50-49 at halftime. The Cru would then trail 62-60 with 14:37 remaining before exploding for a 27-6 run to take a 19-point lead at 87-68 with 5:06 left in the game. Tilmon Gaddy had nine points in the UMHB run as the Cru put the game out of reach. The Tornados would not cut the lead to less than 13 points the rest of the way. UMHB shot 70 per cent from the field in the second half and held Concordia to 29 per cent shooting. The Cru hit 60 per cent from the field for the game and held the Tornados to 41 per cent shooting. Concordia went 11-31 from three-point range while the Cru was 7-19 from beyond the arc.

Tilmon Gaddy led the Cru with a career-high 35 points on 15-22 shooting. Jason Wagner added 23 points, David Ray had 12 points and nine rebounds and Tim Lytle added 12 points on 4-7 shooting from three-point range for UMHB. Joel McDonald had a team-high 21 points for Concordia and Valentino Maxwell added 18 points. Mike Moore had 13 points and Jason Recendez scored 10 for the Tornados.

The Cru will now return home to Belton where they'll host Schreiner University in a 7:30 PM tip-off on Thursday at the Mayborn Campus Center. The UMHB men will then travel to Seguin to take on Texas Lutheran University in a 3:00 PM start on Saturday to open a three-game road trip.